Viewing the contents of an E-Mail This is the procedure I use to examine the contents of emails that I deem to be 'suspicious'. The prevalence of a couple nasty bugs spreading through email in early 2004 have prompted me to create this page. Not all users of Outlook Express are aware that emails can be viewed without opening.

First I right click on a message and choose properties from the menu.

This the simple property summary, I then goto the details tab

The information contained here really doesn't make a lot of sense to persons without techno knowledge. I rarely read it, rather I just click on the message source button, which opens a window with the source code for the entire email, but does NOT open the mail.

In this image I have circled the double file extension, which is a deceptive way to trick people into opening the attachment. In this case the first extension is '.htm' and the second one is '.com'. In the email a person would see the icon for an internet explorer document, however once the user double clicks the attachment, it is executed as the '.com' is the real file extension. In this case I would close the boxes opened while viewing the properties, then deleted the mail as it is infected. I always err on the side of caution and delete any mail that I deem to be suspicious, if an e-mail is that important, it can always be re-sent. A few years ago I had a computer demoted to the status of 'paper weight' due to a virus / worm that got past the anti-virus software. That has prompted my vigilance in protecting my investment, little things such as checking for updated anti-virus definitions, soon as the computer is started, and taking the time to checkout un-solicited / unknown senders emails can save a whole lot of grief.

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