# can i trust this email?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 20, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351 "2003-08-20T03:14:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aceospades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Aceospades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aceospades)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351/1 "2003-08-20T03:14:32Z")

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I got an email today that looks like it’s from Microsoft saying that I need to open the attachment. There’s no text in the email, just the attachment titled “Installer.exe (21 KB)”. I’ve cut and pasted the headers to the email. I’m more then a little suspishious of this email. Any one have any idea what the attachment could be?

Return-Path: \<[support@microsoft.com](mailto:support@microsoft.com)\>  
Delivered-To: **@mprdmailbe.nwk.myway.com  
Received: (qmail 211 invoked from network); 19 Aug 2003 23:27:07 -0000  
Received: from unknown (HELO [mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com](http://mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com)) ([10.50.30.230]) (envelope-sender \<[support@microsoft.com](mailto:support@microsoft.com)\>)  
by 0 (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP  
for \<**@mprdmailbe.nwk.myway.com\>; 19 Aug 2003 23:27:07 -0000  
Received: by [mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com](http://mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com) (Postfix, from userid 871)  
id 1470B1711C; Tue, 19 Aug 2003 19:27:03 -0400 (EDT)  
Received: from 207.191.208.97 ([207-191-208-97.cpe.ats.mcleodusa.net](http://207-191-208-97.cpe.ats.mcleodusa.net) [207.191.208.97])  
by [mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com](http://mprdmx2.nwk.myway.com) (Postfix) with SMTP id 368E91711A  
for \<**@myway.com\>; Tue, 19 Aug 2003 19:26:52 -0400 (EDT)  
From: “Microsoft” \<[support@microsoft.com](mailto:support@microsoft.com)\>  
To: “Ace Ace” \<**@myway.com\>  
Subject: Security Risk Please Read Now  
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2003 19:26:49 -0400  
MIME-Version: 1.0  
X-Priority: 3  
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal  
Message-ID: \<[463422205261082@microsoft.com](mailto:463422205261082@microsoft.com)\>  
Reply-To: “Microsoft” \<[support@microsoft.com](mailto:support@microsoft.com)\>  
Organization: Microsoft  
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service  
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;  
boundary="----\_NextPart\_688582784304829"  
X-FII-Tracking: 0.500458

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**Author:** ![Phage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a4c791/32.png) [@Phage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phage)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351/2 "2003-08-20T03:28:55Z")

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NO! Do not open that attachment! If you really want to know why Microsoft sent you something, go ahead and mail them and ask. Microsoft would never send you an email; they would just release a patch for whatever needed fixing (or breaking).

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**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351/3 "2003-08-20T03:29:45Z")

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Emails of this nature are always, invariably, and without exceptions, scams, a virus, or malware.

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**Author:** ![biqu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7feea3/32.png) [@biqu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/biqu)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351/4 "2003-08-20T03:33:48Z")

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[Microsoft does not deliver software updates via e-mail](http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/policy/swdist.asp)

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**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-trust-this-email/196351/5 "2003-08-20T04:54:21Z")

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Tried briefly to analyze the headers there, but why bother… if you wanna know what it is, check out the front page of [http://www.stopspam.org/](http://www.stopspam.org/) at the moment.

As with most unsolicited e-mail, take a moment to realize that nobody wants you to move 500 million in gold out of Namibia, that herbal concoction isn’t gonna give you a 12" schlong, and if Microsoft wants your machine to do something, hell, it’s already running their software! So bin that e-mail and forget it. 🙂