Be Leery of Links Even in Business E-mails

One of the most common ways to get intrusive files, spyware, adware, worms or bad cookies on your computer is clicking on links in e-mails that take you where you didn’t know you were going. The senders of these type of e-mails are very sneaky while some are blatantly obvious.

Recently, these e-mails have become very convincing with Subjects: that match potential customer requests and even products or services that you may have communicated with in your specific industry.

The key is even if the e-mail portrays to be about something you are currently seeking, if you didn’t request the information or recognize the source — be safe and just hit delete!

Never click on a link that is all numbers no matter how good the offer or noble the cause may seem. A Web site address that is all numbers is called an IP address. E-mails only noting IP addresses simply cannot, should not be trusted! Why wouldn’t the sender spend the ten bucks to have a domain name? Because they don’t want to be traced, that’s why!

Always put your mouse over the link first (don’t click) to see what displays in the underlying code as actual location of where you would be directed to. Many times this is a bait-n-switch situation where you are being shown a warm fuzzy to click on while the underlying code will take you to locations unknown.

To review:

Do not click on IP numbers in e-mail.
Do not click on links if you cannot verify the authenticity of the Sender.
Do not click on URLs from those who you are not absolutely positive are the sites you can trust — even if they say they are.
Always mouse-over a link in an e-mail to see if the underlying URL matches that which you are being asked to click and visit.

Just a little thought before clicking can save you a bunch of unnecessary trouble and headaches!