Hi Peter, I agree, a lot of the emails are typically much more plausible nowadays - so you even get suspicious of some of the genuine ones.
Although I do not use Mail myself, if I am in the least suspicious I use the "view source" feature to see what is really in an email - where any links point to etc. Not quite as quick/simple as just hovering over the link - but you really do see what is really in the email - like white text on a white background that you won't actually see (presumably to add some valid looking content to trick SPAM filters). I guess as more of us learn to avoid their tricks, they need to keep coming up with cleverer tricks ;o( As someone once said "be alert not alarmed" ;o) Cheers Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: [email protected] on 11/9/14 7:54, Peter Hinchliffe at [email protected] wrote: > > On 10 Sep 2014, at 11:41 am, David Noel <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I had this problem about a month ago. It happened because I unthinkingly >> clicked on one of the links at the bottom of one of the messages. I'm not >> sure it is technically a virus, but I'll call it that here. > > No, technically it's not a virus, since you (however inadvertently) made it go > by clicking on that link. No malware software can protect against > user-initated behaviour, even on Windows. It is sometimes extremely difficult > to avoid this, and the phishers and scammers are becoming increasingly clever > in creating emails designed to trick you into doing just this. > > One of the things is that keeps me wedded to Apple Mail is the existence of > the Quicklook URL. I never directly click a link in an email without first > checking it out. You do this by rolling your cursor over the link, NOT > clicking it. When you do this, a small grey button containing an upside-down > triangle will appear at the end of the link. When you click this button, a > window will appear showing you what is behind the URL. You can then determine > very safely whether or not to proceed by clicking the link properly. This has > saved me from countless potential evils from supposed posts from Apple, EBay, > a multitude of banks, pharmaceutical salesmen, etc. > > I simply won't use any other email client for this one feature. It's > absolutely invaluable. > > Peter Hinchliffe Apwin Computer Services > FileMaker Pro Solutions Developer > Perth, Western Australia > Phone (618) 9332 6482 Mob 0403 046 948 > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > Mac because I prefer it -- Windows because I have to. > > -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- > Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> > Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> > Settings & Unsubscribe - > <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug> -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
