Spam Emails
December 17, 2008
In the run-up to the Festive Season, it seems that we’re noticing more spam email than ever, only at the moment the subject lines are (fairly) relevant to the time of year, using phrases like “Order details” or “Your account has been blocked”.
As with all emails like this, if you follow a couple of simple rules, you will minimise your risk of being infected and/or a victim.
- The first and most important rule is simply this : Don’t click on any links inside the email. Ever.
If it’s a “phishing” email (i.e. one of the ones that claims to be from your bank) then type the address into your browser yourself. Don’t just click on the one in the email. - Secondly, look at who’s sent the email. If the subject is saying something about your order, or your account, and you’ve never shopped there in your life – Don’t open the email. You know it’s garbage, because there’s no way you’ve got an account there, let alone one to block.
Yes, in theory someone else could have opened an account at [Site X] in your name – but even if they had done, they wouldn’t be using your email address as a contact point. - The same thing applies with any other email – if it’s not from a name you recognise, start being careful straight away. Don’t click on links in random emails from random strangers.
The majority of online security is really about using some common sense. Yes, sure, a link in an email is convenient – but it’s far easier/safer to type the address yourself.
A link can go anywhere – for example, you can get a link that says www.ebay.com (Don’t click on that link), but if you hover over the link, your email program will tell you it goes to www.ebay.com@imadirtyevilspammer.com – and that’s not the same thing at all. That @ sign says effectively “Log me in to imadirtyevilspammer.com , using the username before the @ symbol” – so while it might look like a link to Ebay, it’s definitely not.
If you’ve access to webmail, that can be even better for checking suspect emails – because webmail usually only shows emails as plain text, you don’t get to see HTML images or text. So you see the plain text of where a link is going to, or where an email has come from.
In short, take care with your emails, have a think, and don’t just open everything. Do that and your odds of being the victim of a scam, or an attack on your finances are greatly reduced.