I always worry about opening all the spam I get. How do you know when a winning email is real? I have one from mygiftsource.com & one from market research council. Both say I have won gift cards. Do I click on them or not? And what's the deal with those that say you have to answer a survey & comply with two silver something or anothers? Sorry for the long message but your help would really be appreciated.
Should I open these emails?
- Thread starter tracyde04
- Start date
tracyde04 - I just posted this in the NEWBIES forum:
Top 10 Signs that Your Win is Really a Sweepstakes Scam
http://www.sweepsadvantage.com/smf/index.php?topic=27530.0
1. You Need to Pay to Receive the Prize
2. You Don't Recognize the Sweepstake
3. You Receive a Large Check with your Notification
4. You Are Asked to Wire Money
5. You Are Pressured to Act in a Hurry
6. You Need to Provide Bank or Credit Card Info to Receive Your Prize
7. The Win is From a Lottery
8. The Win is From a Foreign Lottery
9. The Notification is From a Government Organization
10. The Notification is Sent Via Bulk Mail
They should add:
11. Where you receive an unsolicited email requiring you to answer a survey & comply with offers
12. Where there is an asterisk (*) next to YOU WON or the PRIZE
:nono: :nono: :nono:
Top 10 Signs that Your Win is Really a Sweepstakes Scam
http://www.sweepsadvantage.com/smf/index.php?topic=27530.0
1. You Need to Pay to Receive the Prize
2. You Don't Recognize the Sweepstake
3. You Receive a Large Check with your Notification
4. You Are Asked to Wire Money
5. You Are Pressured to Act in a Hurry
6. You Need to Provide Bank or Credit Card Info to Receive Your Prize
7. The Win is From a Lottery
8. The Win is From a Foreign Lottery
9. The Notification is From a Government Organization
10. The Notification is Sent Via Bulk Mail
They should add:
11. Where you receive an unsolicited email requiring you to answer a survey & comply with offers
12. Where there is an asterisk (*) next to YOU WON or the PRIZE
:nono: :nono: :nono:
johnnyz
New member
Once you start winning 'regularly', it is easier to recognize the real from the fake. Of course, I'm still not sure of some I get.
As Amy said, if you have to fulfill some offer to get your GC, you didn't win squat. Legit sweeps don't require anything from you besides an address, except sometimes a signed affidavit.
As Amy said, if you have to fulfill some offer to get your GC, you didn't win squat. Legit sweeps don't require anything from you besides an address, except sometimes a signed affidavit.
http://ask-leo.com/can_i_really_catch_an_email_virus_just_by_looking.html
Can I really catch an email virus just by looking?
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:
*
Keep your versions of Windows, Outlook and Outlook Express up to date with the latest patches.
*
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.
*
Never open an attachment unless you're positive you know what it is and that you trust the sender.
*
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.
*
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.
Can I really catch an email virus just by looking?
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:
*
Keep your versions of Windows, Outlook and Outlook Express up to date with the latest patches.
*
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.
*
Never open an attachment unless you're positive you know what it is and that you trust the sender.
*
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.
*
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.