From my mail, two emails that profess to be from Facebook.  Would you open either of them?  Right below is the body of the email.  Would you click on the links within this email?

Read the guidelines that follow and then decide.  You’ll find my assessment of this email in the next post.

The following are my BE-SAFE guidelines for opening email and clicking on links:

1 – Be suspect of any email that has no text in the subject line.

On occasion people do forget to enter their topic in that space. And it is a good practice to set a reminder for yourself to make sure that’s covered in emails YOU send.

2 – NEVER click on a link that is the only thing in the body of the email message.

3 – We are often instructed not to open email if we do not know the person who sent it, especially not the links within them.

Unfortunately, today we are often getting spam emails, seemingly from friends and family, so that caution is not enough. Email addresses are regularly being hijacked by spammers or robotic machines.

You may receive an email that shows your friend’s name AND it is NOT from his/her email address. Always look at the email address in the opened email BEFORE clicking on any links in it, especially:

          a. if there is no explanation for the link being sent to you.
          b. if you also receive more than one of the same email to other email addresses you may have.

Another way to recognize if it is an email with hijacked addresses, not really coming from your friend, is to glance at the LIST OF NAMES to whom the email has been addressed.

If there is a string of names in alphabetic order, more than likely the email was NOT initiated by your friend.

DELETE the email without going any further. And then delete it from the trash folder.

4 – BEWARE of official looking email from banks, the IRS, PayPal, credit card companies, FED EX, DHL, the post office and countless other seemingly trust-worthy, legitimate sources.

Some of us have been getting more and more mail like this.  It looks very official, with seemingly important information and links to click on for more information.

OFFICIAL-LOOKING MAIL Precautions – When you think it
might be information important to you:

a – Look at the address of the sender.  Although what you see may state the name of the company, the email address of the sender when you check it within the email is often a totally irrelevant one. Delete the email without going any further.

b –  If you feel compelled to check out the information, then make note of the URL (web address) and TYPE IT yourself into the address space of a new web page.  Check your account from there. DO NOT click on it from the email.

c – NEVER click on a link to DOWNLOAD a receipt
or PDF from any of these official-looking emails.

d – Never click on an UNSUBSCRIBE link that may be in an email UNLESS you officially had subscribed to that mailing.

e – NEVER put in any personal information in any such form you’ve linked to from an email.

f – ALWAYS check that you are on a SECURE SITE before you fill in any personal information on the web.  The web address, in the address bar at the top of your web page, will start with https://.  Note the letter “s” after the http .

g – Lastly, if you still have any doubts, call the bank, or other source, to see if they did, in fact, send an email.

If you have anything from your own experience to ask or add to this, please reply here or post the question on my new Fan page on Facebook –
http://www.facebook.com/TechnologyforSeniorsMadeEasy

UPDATED NOTES:A subscriber to QuickTechTips (see option sidebar on the right) wrote that she made a mistake clicking on a link in a FedEx spam email. When she finally checked with the site she saw that there was a FedEx Alert Warning of a current round of fraudulent emails.  FedEx also spells out very clearly what you will, or will not, get from them by email.

A very full, comprehensive site you can check out is Snopes.com. Snopes will verify, or negate (label “hoax”), the “facts” in emails you get. Simply type your query in the Search box at the top right of the page.

Please add your comments or questions in the “Leave a reply” box below.  Feedback is always appreciated.

You may also send questions to easyseniortechnology@gmail.com