Can opening emails give you viruses

They're called "drive-by emails," and like "drive-by downloads" they infect machines without having to open an attachment, download a file or click on a link. Simply opening an e-mail to read it is enough of a gateway for Trojans and other nasties to invade.

The malware is even stealth enough to avoid virus scanners so users won't receive any warning and the only indication that something out of the ordinary is happening is a message that appears as "Loading…Please wait…". The malware was detected by Eleven security, a German-based firm that specilaizes in e-mail security, and consists of HTML e-mails containing a JavaScript that automatically downloads malware the moment it's opened.

Since the virus works through HTML protocol, users can ensure their online safety by turning that feature off and switching to text-only. However, such preventive measures are complicated by the fact that many messages nowadays are composed using HTML. For now, make sure that your e-mail account is comprehensively protected against spam and malware and that all spam and malware filters are updated.

And obviously, hold off on opening any e-mails in which you don't know the sender. I've changed the way I charge my iPhone. You should, too. Time for a Linux smartphone?

Best iPhones : Which model is right for you? It seems you did not answer the question. If he did not double-click on the link, how could there already be 10 files on the computer?

Or — why did Symantec delete files that were NOT part of the e-mail? This site has been helpful to me. When the email is downloaded to your PC there may, indeed, be viruses in the attachments it carries. Mark Jacobs and Leo: Thanks for your answers.. Recently I have been seeing emails with.

This is worrying. I opened it and it contains a picture. As you know it is by default not shown in gmail. I then opened it on my laptop and as I told you I press the display the image button. It does, however, notify the spammers who sent it that your email is a live address and may open you up to more spam. Hi Leo. I read your article already a few weeks ago, and all what you said made sense to me — as is the case for all the other articles you published by now, and I have read many of them.

I would like to alert folks that some spam emailers are able to defeat your mail settings to not show images from unknown senders. Recently Verizon switched residents of my state from Yahoo to AOL Mail and images are being shown in spam emails despite being set not to. What about looking at source code- or message source? Is that a safe way to check out an email before decidign whether to open or not?

A spammer can sent an email with a malware attachment or link and make it look like it came from a trusted contact. Fake invoices are a pretty popular popular ways of spreading malware and some of the emails can be very convincing. Another layer of protection is to set Windows File Explorer to turn off hide extensions for known file types. Gmail is great for this, as it refuses to send or receive emails with executable files, even hidden within. If you ever need to send an executable file in Gmail, change the extension and tell the recipient to change it back to.

A better method, however, would be to send it via Dropbox or OneDrive etc. Technically you are correct, but the average user or even tired experienced user might not pay attention to that. From a map about risk zones in Europe it appears that Portugal seems to be in a low risk zone.

Could that be the reason all is running that smoothly? Low risk zone sounds like a reasonable explanation. I think it could be like the Mac vs. PC issue. Why not add paypal as a method for folks to support your site? I started to do so today, but did not want to enter any credit card info. Just a suggestion…. Unfortunately this is a universal affliction of these types of devices. I have found that a permanent supply of 1foot extension cords with a pass through plug on one end like on Christmas tree light strings are really useful in overcoming this problem.

You can either connect your wart to the end of the cord and still have the receptacle at the back of the plug available or in many cases you can plug the wart into the pass through plug if you have a conventional plug in the receptacles on each side of it. I have no connection with these folks and Amazon has similar products from Ziotek.

Your choice. For dubious email links and attachments I sandbox the web browser Chrome using free version of Sandboxie or my email reader. Outlook I have not run a real time malware program since Microsoft stopped supporting Defender et al. I run Malwarebytes , Adwcleaner and Hijackthis every few months just in case.

Nothing found for the last few years. None of those programs you mentioned are real antivirus programs. I hope you keep good up to date backups. Not bad, but when hit it still would have been very serious. Both times, I simply restored from my backup. Even so an AV program is a good idea. The most effective malware sits on your computer quietly doing its damage like stealing passwords or sending spam etc.

In order to get infected you have to run that malware program on your computer. And libraries that do security correctly, use software which reloads the OS from scratch daily. Hi Leo, I too opened an unknown email with no links or attachments via the yahoo mail app but am know a lot less worried thanks to your thread.

Was that OK to do? And finally… 3 regarding AV programmes is avg free sufficient for protection or is Avg pro or similar programmes that you have mentioned in this thread essential? Unless you click send, it only creates the email and sends nothing to the spammers. The free versions find malware just as well as the paid versions. The paid versions have more features.

I have Malwarebytes and a Avira installed, but not in real time scanning mode. Probably OK yes. A small number of my email subscriptions have advertising feeds that are not controlled by the email sender, just like you see on many websites.

Can you get malvertising problems from those? Due to that concern I allow Thunderbird to block the remote content in those messages. Blocking remote content would further protect against even seeing that web content in your email.

Most email programs and webmail sites automatically block downloading remote content. Can you elaborate on what happens when a link is clicked? Does just going to the site transmit viruses or malware or is further action e. Sometimes simply visiting the site is enough, depending on many things.

For example a fake Adobe Flash update. It did actually knew my password though i already changed my password on before the hacker even send the message earlier. Thank you for the reply, I can rest in peace now, well not literally but yeah The link you gave me is actually what happened with me earlier, thank you so much for linking that I will be more careful from the future.

Has the phone been hacked? Hi Team Leo, I had an eyebrow raising email experience earlier today. Opened my gmail account and after opening email from a near neighbour with whom I have had a recent dispute the email started moving up and down on the screen as if someone else had control of the pc or was somehow viewing the same screen and using the vertical slider button on side of screen to cause the page to slide up and down I took my hand off mouse entirely and it made no difference.

As this near neighbour has a computer geek son could they have somehow gained this level of control as a result of exchange of a few unfriendly emails in the past week?

There were no attachments or links involved, just plain text sent and reply emails. Are there any special scans or other things I should do to ensure the privacy of my email account has not been compromised as it includes financial and personal information not for viewing by others particularly bad near neighbours. Extremely unlikely. More like dirt in the mouse, or phantom or not-so-phantom touches on a trackpad.

Hi Leo, Thanks for your very prompt reply. Gives me some assurance. After posting question yesterday I also did some googling and found the following info. Also checked recent activity on the account which I never knew was possible.

What do I do?? Any content of an adult theme or inappropriate to a community web site. Any image, link, or discussion of nudity. Any behavior that is insulting, rude, vulgar, desecrating, or showing disrespect. Any behavior that appears to violate End user license agreements, including providing product keys or links to pirated software.

Unsolicited bulk mail or bulk advertising. Any link to or advocacy of virus, spyware, malware, or phishing sites. Any other inappropriate content or behavior as defined by the Terms of Use or Code of Conduct.

Any image, link, or discussion related to child pornography, child nudity, or other child abuse or exploitation. Details required : characters remaining Cancel Submit Answer Rob Koch Replied on March 24, This depends on the email client you use and how susceptible it may be to being invoked by those items. Since most modern versions of email applications like the full Outlook have been designed not to display these items in a preview mode, they typically can only invoke them if you purposefully click on them.

If you instead use a browser based client such as Outlook.