Safe To Open This Email?

i use Yahoo Email and i received a message to my inbox from an AOL account... now normally all the spam goes straight to my Bulk Mail folder which i normally just delete but i received an email w/ an attachment to my main mailbox... is it okay just to open the email to read the contents, i'm not talking about downloading the attachment... but i just want to see the content of the email, after all it could be from someone i actually know, but then again it could be a virus that bypassed my bulk mail folder...

basically i just want to know if you can get viruses from just reading the email itself (and not downloading the attachment)....

 

How do you scan a yahoo email before you open it?

 

I think they scan with norton anyway, but i wouldnt risk it myself.

 

does anyone know if you can contract a virus just by clicking on the email itself (again, not actually downloading the attachment)

 

In a word, yes. However, having Windows and Outlook Express up to date with all security patches reduces the risk, and having your AV software running & monitoring when you open it can help.

But the bottom line is, if you don't even know the sender, at BEST it's gonna be spam, so why bother? Spam filters are never 100% effective. Just dump it.

 

thanks for your input everybody... i deleted teh email but sent a message to the user it was from so i guess if it's somebody i know they will just email me back... the only reason i was tempted to open teh email was because it was titled hokki =] which i guess is a reference to hockey, and i'm currently playing on a hockey team so i wasn't sure if it was related to a mailing list for my team or not....

 

Mis-spelling like that is my FIRST clue not to open it.

 

A quick question: Are Outlook Express updates included with the windows (ME) updates? I did a search on Microsoft's site for Outlook Express updates but came up empty.

 

The Windows Update site updates IE & OE as well. Microsoft Office has it's own update site that can handle any/all of the Office apps, like Word or Outlook. If you run Office you should visit there as well.

 

I use yahoo all the time.

Yahoo uses norton to scan for any attachment before you download them or view them. yahoo should have a viewer on the server itself to view the contents of most formats. txt, wpd jpeg tiff .

if you decide to click on the link yahoo uses norton to scan all the files you are about to download.

if you click on open instead of save then you should be able to see the attachment from the temp folder.

of course this is after they have scaned it for viruses for you