There are good reasons to be suspicious of e-mail. Some e-mail messages might be phishing scams, some might carry viruses. Images in spam e-mail might turn out to be pornographic, or to include Web beacons, which can be adapted to secretly send a message back to the sender. Follow these guidelines to help protect yourself when suspicious mail shows up in your Inbox. If you receive a phishing e-mail message, do not respond to it....
A few clues can help you spot fraudulent e-mail messages or links within them. What does a phishing e-mail look like? Phishing e-mail messages are designed to steal your identity. They ask for personal data, or direct you to Web sites or phone numbers to call where they ask you to provide personal data. Phishing e-mail messages take a number of forms: They might appear to come from your bank or financial institution, a company you regularly do business with, such as Microsoft, or from your social networking site....