How to use e-mail safely

E-mail can be really useful, but it can also be dangerous. The three most common of these dangers are:

• Viruses
• Identity theft

Both of these threats are carried in certain kinds of spam. People use the term "spam" to refer to unsolicited e-mails: that is, a message from someone you don't know (and certaintly never gave your e-mail address to). Spam is almost always trying to sell you something (frequently either home refinances, pornograpy, or under-the-counter pharmeceuticals), but sometimes the messages can actually be harmful.

Avoiding spam

The easiest way to avoid viruses and identity theft is to avoid the spam that brings it. Keep in mind that in order to e-mail you, spammers must first know your e-mail address.

• Never post your e-mail address on a website or online forum. Spammers have automated programs that search through websites for easy-to-find addresses to spam. Smart websites (such as The Facebook) have started rendering e-mail addresses as images, which are not searchable. If you have to, split it up so it's not easily recognized by a machine, for example:
  • my_address (at) a_website (dot) com

• Only ever give out your e-mail address to websites and organizations that you totally trust. Places such as Amazon, eBay, NewEgg, and your bank are all good examples of this.

• Maintain a "trash" e-mail account for anything else that requires an e-mail address. You can easily get a free account from Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail, among others. Check this only rarely, if at all.

Avoiding viruses

Viruses are malicious programs that, once run, can take over your computer, delete your files, and do just about anything else they want to.

Most viruses are packaged into e-mail attachments. Attachments are distinct files that have been "attached" to an e-mail, and are delivered along with the message.

• NEVER click on an attachment unless you completely trust the sender. Even so, if your most trusted friend's computer gets taken over by a virus, it will take over their e-mail account and send itself to everyone in that person's contacts list (i.e. YOU).

• If the name of the file ends in .exe, it is almost certainly a virus. NEVER, EVER, EVER click on executable (.exe) files.

• NEVER click on links in an e-mail from a person you don't trust. These will usually redirect you to a website that will infect your computer with a virus.

Avoiding identity theft

Identity theft scammers pose as legitimate companies who have somehow lost your personal information and need you to resupply it. These Amazon.com, eBay, and major banks are very popular masks for

• Do not trust the From: line of any e-mail. These can be faked quite easily.
• NEVER click on any links in an e-mail. If you are curious, manually copy and past the URL into your web browser's address bar (right-click on the link and select either Copy Shortcut or Copy Link Location).