If you use OE or OE express it's easy to check an email without opening it and possibly exposing yourself to cooties, and to quickly determine if it is indeed spam and you need to block it.
Right click on the suspect email and select Properties.
Then click on the Details tab.
At the bottom, click on Message Source, and you will be able to see (unless it is all HTML/code) what is in the email, and if it is legit or not.
If you determine it is junk, hi-light the email and select (from the top MESSAGE, then you will get a drop down menu - select Block Sender. It will take a minute or so, and ask you to confirm. This will send future emails from that sender straight to your trash. You can also set up rules if you prefer - select Create Rule From Message. Too involved to go into right now - check it out and if you have any questions, ask
***Don't EVER click on a link to "unsubscribe" from something YOU never requested - all that does is confirm your addy is live, and you will get BOMBARDED!!!
Can I really catch an email virus just by looking?
http://ask-leo.com/can_i_really_catch_an_email_virus_just_by_looking.html
Email virus problems get worse each week. A new email virus seems to appear every day, and they're getting smarter. And each is an opportunity for even more people to become infected.
In the past, asking if you could catch an email virus just by reading your Email would get laughs from the techie geeks in the crowd. "Of course not!" they would giggle.
Then came Outlook. All of a sudden you didn't even have to read your email to get infected. And the geeks stopped giggling.
The techie geeks are right once again.
If you do the right things, you cannot get a virus just by reading your email. And the "right things" aren't that difficult.
The problem arose when HTML formatted email became popular. If you've ever visited a visited a website that had a game or some other form of interactive page, chances are you actually downloaded a program from that website to run on your machine. Current web technologies blur the line between web pages that just have pictures and text and web pages that can actually do something.
When email is sent in HTML format all those constructs that work on web pages could be included. And that means that all of a sudden your email could do something as well.
Then came the preview pane. This is a window that displays the currently selected message without you actually having to "open" it. If your inbox is empty and a new message arrives it is then displayed.
It could do something even if you weren't around to open the message.
Email had become a viral breeding ground and you didn't even have to be there to witness it.
Fortunately, these issues became very evident very fast. Security settings were added to new versions of Outlook and patches were issues for the older versions. Even so, it took a few tries to get it right and each new version of Outlook has become a little more secure than the previous.
The bottom line for the average user is this: Plain text email cannot infect you just by looking at it. HTML Mail will not infect you just by looking at it if you are running a current version of Outlook or Outlook Express, and keep any version of the two up to date with the latest patches.
Pretty simple, really.
Let's review some of the rules for safe email:
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Keep your versions of Windows, Outlook and Outlook Express up to date with the latest patches.
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Keep your system clean of Viruses and Spyware by running the appropriate Anti-Virus checkers and Spyware checkers on a regular basis. Keep those up to date too.
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Never open an attachment unless you're positive you know what it is and that you trust the sender.
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Never click on a link in an email message unless you're positive you know where it's going and that you trust the sender.
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Don't believe everything you read in email. PayPal and Citibank and whomever else will not be asking you to verify your account by email - it's probably just a scam to get your credit card number.
