How to decide if you can trust an e-mail message

E-mail is one way that viruses spread across the Internet. When you open an infected e-mail message, the virus can be transmitted to your computer, and then you, in turn, can infect people to whom you send e-mail. If you use e-mail, you can get dozens of messages every day that come from people you’ve never heard of. With so much e-mail coming in, how do you know which messages you can trust?

Think about these four things:

    Do you know the person who sent you this e-mail message? Is this a person, organization, or business you know and trust? If you get mail from someone you’ve never heard of before or a source you never subscribed to, you should be cautious.


    Have you received legitimate e-mail from this source before? Do you receive e-mail from this person regularly or occasionally? If you get e-mail from someone you know, but you’ve never received e-mail from them before, ask yourself if there is any reason you’re getting this message now. If the answer is no, think twice before opening it.


    Do you have any reason to expect e-mail from this person? Are you surprised to see this e-mail? Does it seem unusual or strange to be getting e-mail from this person? If the answer is yes, be cautious about opening the message.


    Does the message on the subject line make sense coming from the sender? Does the subject line refer to something this person would want to send you a message about? If the subject line is just gibberish or doesn’t make sense, the message might be junk mail that uses nonsense titles to get past spam filters that look for certain words.


    If you are not sure that the e-mail you received is trustworthy, don’t open it or even bother to reply. It’s much easier to check before you open the message than it is to clean some viruses off of your computer.

One essential action to take:

    Before you open any e-mail that has an attachment, make sure that your antivirus program is up to date and that it is turned on. This allows the antivirus program to scan attachments with the highest chance of protection.