email dangers

Email Attachments
One of the most common dangers to a user's email account (and computer for that matter) is the risk of email attachments, or more to the point attachments that contain a virus. A virus contained in an email attachment can infect your computer when the attachment is downloaded. Even if the email received is from someone that you know, it could still be dangerous as their computer may be infected and is sending out emails without their knowledge. The safest option with attachments is to never open one that you are not expecting and immediately dispose of any email that looks suspicious.

You can usually get around this problem however if you have a good quality virus scanner installed on your computer. Most new virus scanners are capable of scanning email attachments for viruses, and as long as this software is kept up to date with the latest virus definitions (these programs usually ask to be updated when you are connected to the internet) you shouldn't have too many problems identifying and avoiding emails that are infected.

Recognising Phishing
Phishing is the act of tricking someone into giving out confidential information that they normally shouldn't or wouldn't do. Information such as credit card details, user names and passwords, as well as banking details is what's usually targeted. This is typically done by fooling the user into thinking that the email is from an official company or business with a real need for such information. These are sent by email or instant message and are usually complete with official logos and wording.

These emails may be posing as a bank, an internet site such as eBay, or any other service that uses a password or banking details. An example could be an email you receive from a credit card company that requests you follow the link in the email and enter your details for security reasons. Sometimes these emails play on the user's security fears by saying that they need to update their details to prevent identity theft. Other times they may be threatening, stating that unless your secure details are entered your accounts will be frozen. Both the email message and the site that the link sends you to look quite professional and convincing even though that the page you are taken to has nothing to do with the company that it is masquerading as.

The best way to avoid being caught by phishers is to never follow the link. Financial institutions or other monetary companies will never ask you to divulge such information in an email or even telephone. Just remember, if you are ever in doubt about a message or are concerned that you accidentally gave away your details, ring the relevant organisation straight away.

Below is an example of a phishing email that claims to be from the Bank of America. There are several very obvious signs that reveal this to be a fraudulent email that are highlighted in the image:

• Firstly (circled in green) the email refers to me as 'Bank of America Client'. A true organisation would know my full name. The 'from' address is also a no-reply address which does not exist.
• The second point is the poor grammar/spelling (circled in red) and the lack of official logos or images. A real organisation would never submit such an unprofessional email.
• Thirdly is the link to the banks website (circled in blue). The URL is not the banks real address.

My email account actually picked up that this is a suspect email (as seen in the red box at the top of the image) though most phishing emails get through without being picked up. Another tell-tale point in this email is the 'threatening notice', basically informing me that the account will be suspended if I do not take action in the next 48 hours. This is a common trick that plays on the user's fears and would never happen from a real organisation.

The bottom line is no bank or organisation is going to request you enter banking details or a password via an email as they already have this information.

If you would like to test how good you are at recognising phishing emails, this quiz site has examples of actual 'phishing' mixed in with legitimate emails.

Spam Emails
Spam emails are annoying to everyone and their numbers are growing by the day. Fortunately, FX Digital has the very best anti-spam filters available and more than 95% of spam is blocked before it reaches your account. There are steps you can take however to further reduce the amount of spam you receive.

By giving out your email address on the internet, you can be sure that you will receive a lot of spam. This might be from companies on the internet that require an email address for registration. If this is the case, you might want to create another address from a free email provider, and use this address when filling in such forms. The best way that spammers can gather your email address is if you have posted it on a website. Spammers use programs that scour the web searching for email addresses.

Forged Emails
Have you ever received an email in your inbox informing you that an email failed to send... even though you never sent that email? If you have, then chances are someone has forged your email address, otherwise know as 'spoofing'. This is usually done by spammers where they have used your email address in the 'from' field of an email. When the spammer has sent out their emails to all their farmed addresses, the ones that contained an invalid email address are bounced back to the 'from field' address, which in this case would contain your email. Spammers do this to cover their tracks, so that people cannot send emails back to them.

These messages are harmless, but can be quite annoying especially when you receive hateful mail about your 'spam email attacks'. Unfortunately there is not much you can do about it except delete the emails when they appear in your inbox.