E-Mail Paranoia

If you keep just this one thing in mind, you'll protect yourself from the majority of e-mail attacks: Assume any message could be malicious. It matters not who the sender appears to be, or whether the message's corporate logos, artwork, and embedded links look authentic. It's a trivial matter for scam artists to create fake messages that contain return addresses, images, and URLs lifted from the real company's own Web site.

Next, use your newfound paranoia to examine messages critically. If you don't have an account with Citibank, for example, the company won't be sending you any account-related e-mail. But even messages that appear to come from firms you have an account with may not be real. Remember, your new motto is "Trust No One."

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