The tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf provides a cautionary note that can be useful when dealing with e-mails. The, well known, tale tells of a wolf who dresses up in Granny’s clothing, with the intention of acquiring little Red Riding Hood as his supper. She was cautious enough, when she recognised some unusual signs such as Big eyes, ears and teeth. A similar amount of caution should be present in a person who receives unsolicited e-mails in their Inbox.
When you receive an e-mail from a strange e-mail address there is a good chance that it might not be what it seems. A large amount of communication takes place through e-mail. Information directly to your computer about events has in many instances replaced the circulars through the post. There is one remarkable difference between a printed letter and an e-mail. Unlike some rogue e-mails, the printed letter cannot do anything. It is unable to reach into your address book, get all the name and addresses and send itself to all your contacts.
Where to start when trying to differentiate between a rogue e-mail and a genuine one, in other words how can you tell a wolf from a Granny. When an unsolicited e-mail arrives in your inbox Before rushing to open it up, check to see is this something you are interested in , is it something you have enquired about, or is it possibly spam, or even more potentially disruptive contains malware.
Watch out for strange e-mail addresses, misspellings in the e-mail, and requests for you to log into your account, or give your account details, The deep voice, big eyes, big ears and big teeth. Just because the e-mail purports to come from an organisation such as your bank or Paypal. There is no guarantee that it is genuine, and in most cases is not. If an e-mail in your Inbox is from an known person or organisation, check out for signs of the wolf in granny’s clothing. The following e-mail address is a fake, to the informed eye.
PayPal [hold-ub3FNRhajo@aktionmusik.de]
E-mail addresses are in the format username:@domain.ie, the one above states that it comes from Paypal but the domain is aktionmusik.de, who might very well be a legitimate organisation whose mail server has been hacked.
Rogue e-mails serve the purpose of their creators and that is normally to solicit personal information or money from you the innocent user. Always check that the domain is consistent with the name of the organisation, who are sending the e-mail. Also your bank or Paypal will not send you unsolicited e-mails. According to the Grimm brothers, Red Riding Hood learnt from her experience with the wolf and was fully prepared the next time she met one.
