Second, inspect any URLs in the message. Pass your mouse pointer over the
link and the address should pop up (assuming your email program supports
this). Odds are, you won??™t see something like http://www.ebay.com, but
rather a long arcane URL with lots of symbols or a numeric web address like
http://168.143.113.54. This is a sure sign the link points to a fake web site.
Next, if you??™ve configured your browser to save your login information, you??™ll
know you??™re not looking at the real site if your browser does fill out the form
for you; browsers save passwords for specific URLs, and your PC can tell the
real thing even if you can??™t.
To further scrutinize a suspicious email, right-click the message body and
select View Source to view the HTML source code of the message. Search for
http and you??™ll find the real URLs tied to the links in the message.
452 | Chapter 7: Networking and Internet
Now, some email messages have embedded pictures (as opposed to attachments);
when you view one of these messages, your email program fetches
the picture from the server, and that server records the event. (And voil? , the
sender has confirmed that you??™ve read the message.) If you turn off image
fetching, those servers are never notified, and you??™ll find yourself on fewer
spam lists:
Microsoft Windows Mail
Go to Tools ??? Options, choose the Security tab, and under Download
Images, turn on the Block images and other external content in HTML
e-mail option.
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