An E-mail From my Sister

I just got an e-mail from my sister and thought it was great that she was thinking about me. The message looked like it came from her in that it even had the line at the bottom that said it was sent from her iPhone. My sister has an iPhone and so one would think the link that she suggested really came from her. The reality is that the message wasn't from her and I knew even before I subjected myself to more spam e-mail.

So how did I know the message really wasn't from my sister? It is easy because I also have an iPhone. I know how tough it is to type on my iPhone's keyboard and there is no way I would spell out an entire URL with all of the little various characters that make up the tracking signature. The characters at the end of my alleged sister's e-mail were "3b5pmwcxdk5sympms0" and there is no way I would type all that out.

Another hint that the e-mail really wasn't from my sister was that she sent me it from her iPhone. Why wouldn't she send me a text? It would have been faster for her and she knows I respond to text messages much more quickly than I do with e-mail.

The next time you get an e-mail from one of your friends that contains a link to click on, simply ask yourself a few questions. Does the e-mail look legitimate? Are there hidden clues that indicate it not being a genuine e-mail? If you do have a question, you can always expand the e-mail headers and see where the e-mail originated. While the reply-to field was my sister's e-mail address, the originating e-mail address wasn't. I think I will just send an e-mail to my sister saying "Hello".