I wouldn't say I was lucky, nor reckless, I guess the good outcome is more a reflection of the kind of internet activity I choose to engage with. I should have also added that I did reconfigure that internet firewall to be extremely strict. The only thing of value on this laptop is the time invested in setting it up.
I recall many years ago working at a big Swedish multinational telco when one of their retarded employees who wanted my job told me about a new super duper flight simulator to download. It was in RAR format which immediately raised my suspicions. He even downloaded it onto my work computer but he chose not to install it even though he was talking up its amazing appeal. See where this was going? I put the file on a usb key and stored it for posterity. 4 years later I decided to run a virus check on the RAR file and sure enough, just as I suspected there was a half recognised virus in it.
There are plenty of internet sites that invest a lot of time and effort to help you stay out of the dark side on the internet, use them and a lot of your net experience will be worry free.