Just by viewng an email-can you get a virus?

justaquestion

Hi folks,


Just wondering about this as I heard on radio today some chap who had his paypal hacked and money stolen just by opening an email supposedly from Paypal, but didn't click on the link within it to give his details.


So by just viewing an email but NOT clicking on any link within it or downloading any attachment can you get a virus or Trojan?


Thanks for any advice.

Browntoa

rubbish , either too ashamed to admit he fell for it or already infected

London50

As far as I know you cannot get a virus from just opening an email, I would strongly believe that the person on the radio was not telling the whole story.
I have had MANY spam emails over the years that I have opened but not clicked on any links ect and to date have never had any problems with viruses that way.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Of course there was that game called Elf Bowling and it was going to end the world!

AndyPix

justaquestion wrote: »

Hi folks,


Just wondering about this as I heard on radio today some chap who had his paypal hacked and money stolen just by opening an email supposedly from Paypal, but didn't click on the link within it to give his details.


So by just viewing an email but NOT clicking on any link within it or downloading any attachment can you get a virus or Trojan?


Thanks for any advice.

Nope, that's total garbage.


You can NOT get infected simply by opening an email.


The infection routes rely on you taking action on some of the content.
Either clicking a link, or indeed opening an attachment.

esuhl

It depends. If you load an email with embedded content, then (depending on your email client and PC settings), it's possible.

kwikbreaks

Was this webmail? If so then there are such things as drive by viruses - https://blogs.sophos.com/2014/03/26/how-malware-works-anatomy-of-a-drive-by-download-web-attack-infographic/ so I suppose an html email might just do this. Far more likely it was a user error though.

Fightsback

AndyPix wrote: »

Nope, that's total garbage.
You can NOT get infected simply by opening an email..

Care to wager on that one ?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2484639/malware-vulnerabilities/microsoft-to-patch-dangerous-outlook-hack-by-preview-bug-next-week.html

Geodark

AndyPix wrote: »

Nope, that's total garbage.


You can NOT get infected simply by opening an email.


The infection routes rely on you taking action on some of the content.
Either clicking a link, or indeed opening an attachment.

Hate to burst your bubble fella, but you are confusing viruses with phishing - there are (or at least were) viruses out there that could infect your machine even by selecting them in outlook and having them appear in the preview window. Company policy at the large software house I work at is to have the preview window disabled and only open emails from known sources.

Geodark

Fightsback wrote: »

Care to wager on that one ?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2484639/malware-vulnerabilities/microsoft-to-patch-dangerous-outlook-hack-by-preview-bug-next-week.html

Totally agree - people seem to be confusing phishing with viruses. and I dont just mean the OP - there are a lot of people out there who don't know the difference.

hans_2

Fightsback wrote: »

Care to wager on that one ?

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2484639/malware-vulnerabilities/microsoft-to-patch-dangerous-outlook-hack-by-preview-bug-next-week.html

Geodark wrote: »

Hate to burst your bubble fella, but you are confusing viruses with phishing - there are (or at least were) viruses out there that could infect your machine even by selecting them in outlook and having them appear in the preview window. Company policy at the large software house I work at is to have the preview window disabled and only open emails from known sources.

Email programs and email services now no longer allow the things that once upon a time made looking at an email risky.

https://askleo.com/can_i_really_catch_an_email_virus_just_by_looking/