Junk E-mail Quick Tip #12

Folks I invite you to look at the screenshot below and ask yourself, “why did he highlight those items?” (Yes, it is a bit of a quiz.) After all, this is fairly typical “spam”…

A: Both of these messages are shown to have attachments (the paperclip symbol), and both are examples of common “social engineering” ploys the cyber-criminals use to get us to open their e-mail (here, greed, and the hopes that I am expecting a package from DHL…)

I know you would never open these. You’re too savvy. But I do want to point out two things to you — One, spamming season is here.
The criminals are gearing up for the holidays, so be expecting more of these (and that some will slip through into your Inbox). And, two, while you may not open these, your computer might open one for you.. and if that happened to be a paperclip spam, you just got put on the International Suckers List (and possibly infected).

Please take a quick look at this Reader Question Answered article, How did they get my e-mail? and see a quick tip for reducing your spam and staying off the list.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend…