From time to time, you may be sent an email which carries a virus or links to a fraudulent website. This type of email is very common, and it is important to learn how to deal with it, in order to prevent your computer or your personal details from being compromised or misused.
Such messages are often received from total strangers. However, sometimes an email may appear to be from someone you know, when really it is not. This is because it is possible to include a fake sender email address in emails.
Unwanted (unsolicited) mail tends to fall in to one of several categories:
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Spam (junk) email, where people offer unwanted services and products
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Scam emails, where people pretend to ask for help in exchange for large sums of money
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Phishing email, where the message appears to be from a bank or other online service, asking you to enter your personal and financial details, or passwords.
Below are some tips for keeping safe online:
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You should never reply to unsolicited mail, or even click on the links in the mail. Doing so usually results in more junk mail being sent to you.
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Never click on links in emails which lead to websites asking for your password or similar. It is possible for the text of the link to give one address, when really it opens up another (possibly dangerous) address. Instead, type the link into your web browser yourself and proceed from there.
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If a website asks for your financial details, ensure that it is secure. In the Firefox Web browser, secure websites have a yellow address bar with a padlock icon to the right of the address. Click on the padlock to read more information about the security of the website.
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Only download and run software from sources that you trust. By default, you can only download software directly from Ubuntu.
