There are things which I routinely do everyday since the beginning of my day, for instance brushing my teeth, go to work, have lunch, dinner, and check my emails. Yes, check my emails, and since you are reading this, I believe you will do the same too and I bet you can’t leave your mailbox unattended for more than 3 days. Ok, if you wish to challenge my bet and wish to do it purposely, you win, but I bet again that you wont pass a week. And just in case if you did pass a week, send me an email on the 8th day, maybe I will consider to rephrase this post 
A study recently shown that a total of 95% of emails are junk mails! (Access article here)Yes, if you received a hundred emails a day, only 5 are legitimately meaningful. Yah, maybe your inbox is clean but if all the mails inside your junk/spam mail folder are counted, the figure does make sense.
Well there are basically a few reasons why we receive so many unwanted emails from so many ‘people’ around the world. One of them is because there are people who like to see other people feels miserable and so, they try to make life difficult for their victims. They spread viruses and Trojans around hoping that their targets will fall to the trick and screw up their day. This makes the sender happy and that’s an example of a crime of passion which you won’t be caught that easily.
The second reason is more on making money, and since everyone knows everyone can’t resist the temptation of checking emails, they send them advertisement hoping that they will buy their products. So, if you are one of the victims like me who received mails like “Free Viagra for the first 100 who open this email” or “Congratulation, you have become the next millionaire”, well done, you are the potential buyer. But I think I’m luckier because I was approached by someone who is living in the Middle East and he told me that his life is going to end soon and he is offering me a few of his oil wells because he has no son for inheritance. And all I have to do is just to click a link in the email and send him my account number. Unfortunately, I accidentally deleted that email and emptied my trash, if not I will be the next millionaire in Malaysia
Well, prevention is better than cure and so, I offer you 5 golden rules on how to identify the right emails to open:
1 –Emails with broken English are safe. This will assure you that the sender is from Malaysia and the possibility to receive a virus from other countries are prevented
2- Call your friend on a cellphone and ask him/her whether if he/she sends you the email. If he/she does, ask him/her about the content to prevent a hoax. And since you already know the content, delete the email without opening it, just to make sure
3- Keep your emails in your inbox for at least one week before you open them. This is to let antivirus software get updated with the latest definition so that the old viruses in your email can be detected
4 – Forward all your mails to everyone when you received them. If you receive phone calls from them scolding you that they are infected, you just cheated death
5 – Check emails only on your friends computer
That’s my 5 golden rules, and hope it will help to reduce the 95% junk mails each and everyone of us are receiving. And if you happen to receive the mail from my Middle East friend, do ask him to send his mail to me again and help me to apologize for my late reply
