What should I do if I receive an email attachment from someone I don't know?

An unexpected or suspicious email should never be opened without consideration because it could contain a virus that can harm your computer, steal saved information, and render your computer useless.

As a general rule, only open attachments if you are expecting them or know the person and if they are relevant to what you are doing. .exe files can run a program, and there is no reason to share them. If you get one, you should delete it.

Google has a filter in place that prevents the sending of .exe files, which can also be distinguished in zip folders. If you receive an email with a zip, open the folder to discover a .exe extension. Some attachments might slow the computer down. Most legit emails have some salutation. Most elicit emails provoke a sense of urgency in the user and cannot be trusted.

If you receive an email attachment from someone that you do not know, there is only one thing that you should do: DO NOT OPEN IT. You should not download the attachment in any form because this is one of the methods that people do whenever they would like to send viruses. In fact, there are some hackers who are able to send emails supposedly from people that you know so that you will open the attachments.

This will only cause problems in the long run. There are some viruses that are fast-acting which means that they can wipe out the data found in your computer within minutes. Some would take time and you may not realize in the beginning that they are there.

People have always been advised to be careful of some unscrupulous elements who intentionally send email attachments that contain all kinds of malware to unsuspecting email receivers. The reason is that you might not be so sure to determine whether the email attachments contain viruses or other kinds of malware. The best thing to do if you receive an email attachment from someone you don’t know is to delete the attachments. This can be a very hard thing to do because you would always want to see the content of the email attachment, probably to know if it is an important email. However, if you so much love yourself, it is advisable not to open or download the attachments because most attachments that come from strangers should not be trusted. Aside from the fact that you might get your computer damaged, you are also at risk of opening yourself to fraudsters.

The most important thing to remember in this situation is that it is unsafe to open any attachments that you were not expecting. If you get an attachment without forewarning from a company or individual you don't know, do not double click on it. Some dangerous spam e-mails do not come with malicious attachments, but they try to trick you into downloading a malicious file.

You can examine the call-to-action button the same way you do with links by putting the cursor over the top of it. Make sure you can view the full e-mail address of the sender when you first look at it. This address issue is a sign that something is "phishy." To be sure, you should check with the sender or delete the e-mail, but before you do that, you should report the e-mail as spam. Always be suspicious until you can confirm that the person is who they claim to be.