# Blank emails--what the hell?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-emails-what-the-hell/242421>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 28, 2004, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-emails-what-the-hell/242421 "2004-04-28T02:59:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-emails-what-the-hell/242421/21 "2004-04-29T03:59:21Z")

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I saw this post yesterday, when I had a blank subject line, but I think it still had an address.

Then today, I saw one that was COMPLETELY blank in my inbox. I noticed it was 606k. Im not up on the exact math of that, but compared to like a 3k email, that is a LOT. I did not click either email, just because I did’nt have a reason to click it.

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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-emails-what-the-hell/242421/22 "2004-04-29T19:29:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> … I noticed it was 606k. Im not up on the exact math of that, but compared to like a 3k email, that is a LOT. I did not click either email, just because I did’nt have a reason to click it. …

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    - Well, assuming you are not using IE/Outlook (right?), and assuming you have an up-to-date active virus scanner (like, one you paid for, that runs on your own PC and you can get updates for), then you just preview the e-mail, save any attachments to your HD and scan the attachments for viruses. I do that all the time out of curiosity and have never gotten infected by anything that way.  
…

- And just about every spam attachment I’ve ever gotten had something bad in it, but I’m casually curious about what’s circulating.  
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**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\
**Post date:** [May 1, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blank-emails-what-the-hell/242421/23 "2004-05-01T01:24:53Z")

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    - Upon further asking around, a couple different sys admins said that if an e-mail header is damaged, often the contents of the email will be lost as a result of the way the system works. And one big reason e-mail headers end up damaged is because spammers try to falsify them incorrectly–so perhaps “incompetent spammers” are partly to blame–but not so much for sending totally-blank emails.  
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