Email Tips

Staying Safe from Viruses and Scams

Let's assume you have a good antivirus installed (and you'd better, or I'm coming to your house!). The antivirus will scan your email coming in and going out, so you know you're protected there... but there are other ways to protect yourself.

The first thing you want to consider is this... it takes the antivirus gods (Symantec, McAfee, etc) 24-48 hrs to come up with a solution when a new virus comes out. If you happen to be unlucky enough to receive the virus in your email in that unprotected time frame, there are still ways to stay safe until the antivirus gets it for you.

1. Turn off your Preview Pane. Viruses in email have to be opened before they can execute -- and if you have your preview pane on, that email has been opened! You have to be able to select the email to delete it, but selecting it with the preview pane on is the same as opening it. To turn the Preview Pane off, go to the View menu, Layout. Uncheck "Show Preview Pane" on the lower half of the first tab.
2. Watch out for suspicious emails. If there is a subject on an email that doesn't make sense, either delete it or put it in a special folder, unopened, and rescan it for viruses in three days. That should be enough time for any new virus to be detectable by your antivirus program.
3. Never open an attachment from someone you don't know.
4. Scan email attachments for viruses prior to opening. Save them to a temporary folder on your desktop, then right-click the file and choose "Scan with <your antivirus progam>".
5. Delete any unwanted messages without opening them.
6. Be careful of emails asking you for confidential information. There are scams circulating that pretend to be Paypal, or your credit card company, that ask you to verify your user & password, social security or bank account number, etc. Legitimate companies won't do this. If you're just not sure, try picking up the phone and calling them. They will probably confirm that they were not the sender, and you'll feel much better knowing you didn't act on it.
7. Always confirm the authenticity of a suspicious request before responding in email. Like I said... pick up the phone and call them. Don't email them.
8. When visiting a website, type the address directly into the browser rather than following a link. Many Phishing attacks start with a phony link -- it looks normal to you, but when you click on it, it actually goes to a fake version of the bank or other entity's web page. They make it look almost identical, but when you enter your information to "confirm", they just got you!

Email Scams

Everyone's gotten them -- emails warning you of some dire new virus and the actions you need to take to delete it. Or a little girl that's missing. Or news of an upcoming merger between Microsoft and AOL that promises to make you big money if you forward the email. The list goes on and on. Newsflash; most of these are scams.

How do you know? Simple. If you see the words "Send this to everyone you know" or a variation on it, do the opposite -- DON'T.

Then go check out the best hoax busting website... www.snopes.com . You can look up the email you just received.