Is it safe to open attachments

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Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jan 2011 Posts: 1650

some of my emails from scammers contain attachments, i think they are just letters or forms some using microsoft word.

are attachments safe to open, what should i not open??

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:31 pm

You'll get a wide variety of answers to this.

If your lad is sending you documents, as an attachment, 99% of the time, he is after your money, he won't be wanting to infect your computer, which would negate his purpose.

The 1% uncertainty is for attachments he may have obtained from others, that could contain some form of data logger, keylogger, etc.

I'll open some attachments from lads, once we've been through "your attachment had a virus and my computer wouldn't open it" "your attachment won't open on my computer, are you using win98/Millenium/XP/Vista/Win7?" And I scan all attachments before opening.

But in general, most lads aren't interested in infecting your computer, it will lose them a customer.

Other people on the net aren't so nice though.

Elite Baiter Joined: 16 Jan 2011 Posts: 1650

thanks so generally they are safe to open, if you scan them first with an anti virus program. I use microsoft essentials and it seems pretty good at picking things up that are unsafe.

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 9:42 pm

I'm pretty sure they're safe most of the time. They do that to avoid spam filters.

What you have to ask yourself is why risk it? There's no sense on taking chances over a bait. You have to use this to your advantage. Start on the right foot by slapping him for sending an invalid attachment. Slap him until you get a plain text version.

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:04 pm

If you use gmail you can view the attachments without opening them.

Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:43 pm

^^^^

Don't bother downloading anything from lads. Just pretend that you couldn't open it for whatever reasons !

Not quite a Newb Joined: 04 Nov 2010 Posts: 76

If it's a first contact message where the entire message is an attachment, I would avoid it. That sends out a ton of red bells, and it's just not worth it to stress over it. If it's later on in a bait, and it's paperwork you're supposed to fill out, scan it first just to play safe, but it's usually okay.

insults and more · Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2011 10:59 pm

Subway 1 is right.

I view every attachment as a blessing. If he had just sent it in the email, there'd be no problem (except the ones I have to come up with). But damn it, I can't open this file! Maybe he can send it in another format, or I'll have to upgrade my computer, or the file had a virus which deleted all my previous emails.

A good rule of thumb is that you should only ever look at what's in an attachment as a last resort. Even if you have Gmail and can view it online. If it is important enough, the lad will eventually copy it into an email. There's no point being compliant when such an opportunity falls into your lap.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

I open some but I never open a zip file from a mugu. But in general I usually protest every attachment. Mainly to delay things.

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 2:55 am

anything i open from a lad is purely to throw a big ol' red FAKE over its face Very Happy

Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 5:23 am

There's never a need to open an attachment unless he's returning something you requested. In that case, as others have noted, you can "view" it from your gmail account to be safe.

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