Don't Open That Email But Then What ?

byTwack

2.2K followers

3 years ago

Trying to find a title that courts your curiosity is never easy, especially when you're passing on important information. Anyway, 'Don't Open That Email But Then What ?' was the best I could come up with at short notice.

Straight the point, I thought I would do a 'follow up' to 'Wham Bam, Thank You Scam' as a number of members have raised an interesting point.

This was also prompted by Keisha's (@Keishalina9) post Bamboozle? which is another excellent reminder that we need to be hyper-vigilant when it comes to protecting ourselves from unscrupulous scammers.

With emails in mind, a number of member replies advocated just deleting them without opening, thus nullifying any unwelcome intrusions into our cyber security.

The problem with this is that how are we meant to be able to tell, just by looking at the notification in our inbox, if the email is naughty or nice ?

As we know, some of the more advanced phishing experts can mask their sending address and add your name or something familiar to you, in the subject line.

At this rate, we'll be deleting most of our mail, unopened. However, there is a work around.

When you're in your inbox, hover over the 'suspect' email and then 'right-click', a menu should appear.

This is an extension of the tool bar at the top of your inbox and has a number of other features available.

Now, notice that although the message I have hovered over has been high-lighted, it's not open, it just means that the next action you take will be connected with that message.

Take you mouse and scroll down the menu until you come to 'View message source'. Take a deep breath and click it. STOP, lol, just kidding but you do need to read through to the end before trying this. Here's an idea of what to expect.

I've covered over the IP addresses, just for good measure. Those more familiar with gobbledygook might understand some of the wording, though I can see words like 'protection' and 'authentication' which to me, is reassuring.

If we scroll down further we find the message itself.

Thanks Rudy. As you can see, we are able to read the message without opening the email. Now, this is something I have done for a while now and until today that's without checking to see if it's a legit method. Logic tells me it should be, though logic has never been my strong suit.

So, with that in mind, I decided to go in search of anyone else asking this question. I did find someone and an associated article that goes some way to explaining the answer, though in this instance, the answer was 'Probably'.

The article "Is View Source a safe way to view suspicious emails?" has been written by Leo Notenboom, who was an eighteen year veteran programmer with Microsoft, so he probably knows his onions and other vegetables.

The caveat he has added at the end, to qualify him saying 'probably', is because he cannot one hundred percent be certain that all email providers act in the same manner as he describes in his article, so he's basically covering himself.

Personally, I use Outlook, so I'm happy to use 'View message code'.

If any of our resident computer experts can confirm or deny any of the above, please feel free to chip in.

I'll leave you with Leo's parting comment.

"So, be very careful when you step around emails that you are uncertain of.

• By and large, View Source should be completely safe;
• But be aware that there's the possibility, however small, that it's not."

Twack Romero.