Dec
25
25
What kind of harm might a bogus email do to my computer?
I got an email with no subject and no sender’s name at my Yahoo! email account. I opened it by mistake. I opened it in my browser, not Outlook. There was nothing in the body of it, either. There were no file attachments. I closed it right away and wiped my cookies, history and temp files.
My system has up-to-date anti-virus software, also an adware/spyware app. No alarms went off. Also, Yahoo! checks email for malware, right?
So how likely is it that the bogus email stuck something on my computer?
Smokies hiker, the email is bogus if it doesn’t contain content for the recipient. I see your point, that it’s useful to the sender, but I’m not interested in validating anything for spammers.
Extraordinarily unlikely. You’re fine. If you didn’t open any file attachments, there is no way for a virus to propagate. All that cleaning was not necessary just because you got an email you didn’t recognize. You can seriously stop worrying and put away all the antivirus software, I promise you have nothing to worry about.
Probably not likely, but you should clean up the right way anyway. One AV and that other security software will not stop all of the malware out there. I periodically run scans with these scanners,
Malwarebytes, SuperAntiSpyware, A-squared, and Ccleaner. Be sure to update them first. You might be surprised what was on your PC…
It’s likely that the only harm you have done is to confirm to someone that your email address is a valid one. They will likely pass your email address on to others. Just understand that no email is bogus. Each email serves a purpose when it is opened. You shouldn’t have to worry about any viruses, only an excess of emails and spam for awhile.