Security-Outlook Express

I do not know if this has been posted before but.......

You can receive some nasty virus, Trojans etc, if you have the preview pane open...so you should go into the settings and close down the preview pane.:thumb:

 

No idea if i have/use outlook express - but if I do/did - how would I know if the preview pane was open? (You know the bother I've had with viruses before...)

 

Lookout Express is the email equivalent of leaving your front door wide open and putting notices on all the lamp posts in your street telling people that you door is open and nobody is watching it.

If you use Windows, then your default email tool will be Outlook Express, unless you've changed yourself.

With ANY email client, you need a good anti-virus tool, kept up to date. There are some good free ones. I used to use AVG before I left Windows behind. Also, if you look through the options most email programs have an option to not download pictures by default. It is a good idea to disable the automatic download of pictures, as that's one of the easiest ways to verify that your email address is good to receive stuff. It works like this (in layman's terms):
1. Your email address finds its way to somewhere a bit dodgey (this can be through no fault of your own)
2. It is recorded in a database
3. A program sends an email to everybody in the database. The email has an embedded picture in it, whose address has a serial number unique to your email, and the program records that number and links it to your email address
4. You receive the email and the picture opens in either in the preview pane or in the main view when you open the email
5. When your computer accesses the picture that has been linked in, using the web site address that was in the email, a program takes that unique number and updates your entry the database to record that you accepted the email.
6. Your email address, and that of all those others that fell for it, gets sold to all and sundry on the black market
7. You start getting bombarded with emails trying to sell you everything from viagra to guns, and you also start getting all manner of emails pretending to be genuine, trying to get you to "verify your account details", and if you fall for this latter point, then your bank account gets bled dry and you start receiving credit card statements in your name from companies you've had no dealings with.