Hey fellow nerds! This is Steph here, continuing our Manage 2017 Like a Boss series. I’ve got a serious question for you. Let’s imagine your doorbell rings. You check the visitor out through the peephole and discover a total stranger’s on your front stoop. Do you:
- Choose to not open the door.
- Open the door a crack to check first.
- Open the door, invite them in, and give them all of your personal information
Which one would you choose? Most of us would pick, number 1, right? After all, the concept of Stranger Danger is pummeled into our brains from day one.
If that’s the case, why is it that so many of us open our email and all those years of hard and fast guidelines fade away? An email from a stranger asking us to open a file or click on a link? No problem. An email from Ebay asking for our account number? Sure thing.
But back to our example with the person at our front door. If you wouldn’t let that person in your house, then don’t open your email. A simple double-click could invite more than just that person’ name into your contacts. It can run scripts that load viruses and malware on to your machine. It can hose your machine.
So what do you need to know to police your inbox like a pro?
Don’t Open It If You Don’t Know Who It’s From
Many folks seem to think that it’s okay to open emails from strangers as long as you don’t click the attachment. Here’s a tip: an email does not need an attachment to carry a nasty-gram. Basic rule of thumb: don’t open it if you’re unsure.
The Name Doesn’t Always Equal The Sender
Every email contains two pieces of key information. The Sender Name and Email Address. If you’ve set up an email account, however, you’ll know that you can type in anything for the Sender Name. So don’t look at the name only, check the email address to make sure they sync up before opening the message. If you have a preview pane on, you’ll be able to view the senders full email without opening the email.
Don’t Give Out Any Personal Information
If you avoided my advice under the heading above—that’s okay, I promise to forgive you—then you may not necessarily have a virus or malware. Just as many emails are aimed at phishing information as they are at loading something onto your machine.
Phishing
Phishing is basically an email from a sender who claims to be from a legitimate company or even branches of the government. The difference is the email asked you for an extensive amount of sensitive information. The requested information might include things like: your account number, you mailing address, your credit card number, etc. Here are some examples of phishing emails I’ve seen recently:
- Your Ebay account has been compromised. Click on the button below and enter your information to reset your password.
- I am Mr. Blah-Blah from the Internal Revenue Service/FBI/ CSA. You have failed to pay your taxes/broken the law/are under investigation.
- You have inherited one hundred, thousand dollars. Please provide me with your checking account and ABA routing number so I might wire you the funds.
You get the idea. If it’s written in broken English, that’s also an indicator that the person may not be who he or she seems.
No Company Will Discuss Your Account Online
Ebay will never email you asking for your account number. Microsoft will never call or email about your computer. And lastly, the Federal Government (for our US reader) will NEVER email you to let you know you’re being investigated. You will always get a letter. Or, if it’s really bad, they’ll show up with a S.W.A.T. team.
If you’re concerned, call the number on the back of your credit card—not the one in the email. Get in touch with your accountant/attorney. Just don’t use any of the contact information or links in the email.
Summary
In summary, some tips you can use to police your inbox are:
- If you don’t know the sender, don’t open the message.
- Never download attachments from sender’s you don’t know.
- Check the email address the message is from. This doesn’t have to be the same as the sender’s name.
- If the message is in broken English, delete it.
- Never give out sensitive information in an email. A legitimate company will call or send a letter.
4 thoughts on “Manage 2017 Like A Boss: Police Your Inbox Like a Pro”
This is such good advice. Do you have any tips on how to get family members who aren’t particularly computer literate to always follow these rules?
Hi Lydia,
Thanks very much. Glad you found this post useful!
Here’s I did for my family members who are in the same boat:
1—Encourage them to apply the “when in doubt, throw it out” rule. If they don’t know who it’s from, just delete it.
2—If they get an email from a company, that seems to be about their bill, they should call the business. Not the number on an email, but the one on their bill. Since most non-tech people haven’t agreed to paperless billing, most of what they’ll be receiving are store promotional emails or messages from friends. Anything more is subject.
3—Never open an attachment. Unless you are expecting an attachment from a specific business, it’s unlikely that a business is going to send out a random attachment. The exceptions are for companies with whom you have a billing agreement or large companies who send promotional emails. For example, I have Google business and they send me a PDF bill each moth, but I’m expecting that from them. Most people will never see and attachment from a sender unless they ask for one.
Extra Precaution: Every month or so, I log into their accounts with them and permanently remove anything from their trash. I also run any security updates, because this type of user may not be aware how to update their machine.
I hope this helps. If you have additional questions or suggestions for a future post (although this one sounds like it should be added to the calendar!) please let us know. 🙂
You’re welcome, Steph. Thank you for your advice. I definitely agree that it would make a good follow-up post! I hope you’ll write it at some point.
You are very welcome! This year has been a particular challenge for us in this area. So we get it!
We sure will now! Thanks so much for checking in and be sure to let us know how it’s going. 🙂
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