BleepingComputer.com: Deleting Suspicious Mail In Outlook Express

I hope this is logical !

Outlook Express Question; When EM arrives in Outlook Express unopened, . . If you want to delete it, you need to click on it, and then it shows the contents of an EM in the inbox on the lower screen. Is it detected, etc. by the PC as an EM that is opened.

If so isn't that a security threat ?

Yes it will show as a read (opened) message.
The problem is with spam mail. A lot of it has web bugs which "phone home"
when opened. This verifies that your email address is valid, and putting it on a spammers
list so they can continue to send the junk to you. With the view you describe, it isn't necessary to click open the mail-as soon as the contents are shown on the bottom half of the screen, the spammer knows he's got a valid address.
To avoid this, DISABLE the preview pane. Doing so will change the layout and allow you to delete spam and unwanted mail without having to open it.

Open OE. VIEW/Layout.
UNCHECK Show Preview Pane, click Apply to save the change.

This post has been edited by Queen-Evie: 23 December 2007 - 04:21 PM

You might also want to change the setting that specifies an amount of time after you click on the e-mail before the program considers it read. I no longer use OE, so I can't tell you exactly where to make that change. I think the default is something low, like 3 or 5 seconds. I changed mine to 30 seconds so that I'd have plenty of time to delete it without having to worry.

Disabling the view pane is one of the first things I do in OE for all my identities.

There's another trick to view a suspicious email before deleting it that does not actually open it. But you can check it to see if it is legit...ie a friend has a new email address that you didn't know about. All you do is right click the email listed in your inbox and click properties. Click the Details tab. From there you can click the Message Source button and you can read the entire message, who it's from etc, without risking opening an infected email.

OR, you can preview the mails in Mailwasher while they are on server and dlete from server anything in the least suspcious .As far as I am aware (??), THAT method does NOT spark of a chain reaction to alert the sender of your actions

and, as I use mailwasher my OE preview pane is turned ON )

Quote

You are correct. It doesn't matter about OE's preview pane being open because mailwasher is accessing your online email storage from your internet provider. It only opens OE (or whatever your default email client is) if you choose that from mailwasher's options. Your mail isn't in OE until you choose to download it to your computer.

In any event, having the preview pane turned on can be a risk even when using mailwasher. All it takes is forgetting to delete/bounce one bad email before downloading to OE, and you could be in a world of hurt.

I'll will venture to use the viewers users and the hard at work, to thank you all for some very interesting chatables !

So, Thanks much !

Hvae a Inspiring and Merry One !