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Easy tips for safe emailing

Are you tired of seeing those two digit and three digit numerals that counts your spam mails, receiving fake and suspicious emails that requests you with urgency to give in your personal information? Well, it’s high time you use some tricks to safeguard your email against this.

Secure your email client: For most windows users, it’s the Outlook or the Outlook express that serves as the email client. There still exists other email client like Thunderbird, Eudora, Bat and so on. If one uses web mail such as Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, Rediffmail and other similar kinds then the web browser acts as the email client. However if using an email client, you need to secure it.

There are things that the users can do to protect their email client with the features and functionalities within itself. Some of them being setting the viewing pane not to display the messages, listing the safe domain names from which you are sure of receiving safe mails and soon.

Viewing the mails in text format is always recommended. Though HTML messages can be pleasing to the eye, the hidden dangers will never be that pleasing. They open the possibility of transmitting viruses that can cause severe damage to your system.

It is always suggested to change your passwords occasionally. Your passwords can be at a lower risk if they comprise of letters, numbers and symbols as well. Never share your passwords with anybody.

Do not entertain mails from unknown senders even though the subject line “Remember me” or “Re:” etc may tempt you to do so. They can definitely be spam mails. Try not to reply to any of those kinds of spam mails. Similarly chain emails may have interesting topics for you to dig in, but beware the next time you forward it to somebody else; your address could be farmed by spammers. If at all you intend to forward any, delete all the addresses or use BCC (blind carbon copy). There’s nothing worse than receiving an email with half a page of email addresses on it before you get to the point.

Try not to open any attachments unless you are expecting it or you know who the sender is. Make it a point to check the file extensions before you open an attachment.

Beware of phishers. Many of them use emails that are spoofed that are used as a means to convince people to give out their personal or financial information by deception. To prevent them try installing browsers like IE7 that have the feature to filter out phishing sites. Do not reveal any personal or financial information or fill up any forms unless the emails are digitally signed.

It is always safer to use separate email address for chat rooms, forums, online letters, subscriptions etc.

Think twice before you click on a link in an email to get to any web page, if you suspect the authenticity of that message. It is always advisable to visually inspect the addresses in the browser’s address bar.

Use anti virus and anti spyware softwares to scan both the incoming as well as the outgoing messages.

Always remember to back up the mails regularly to avoid the fear of losing important mails.

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