# "None" e-mails?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/none-e-mails/241212>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 21, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/none-e-mails/241212 "2004-04-21T13:14:16Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/none-e-mails/241212/1 "2004-04-21T13:14:16Z")

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Someone posted this on a bulletin board:

> [@](#):
>
> I’ve been getting an UNUSUAL amount of emails from people I don’t know with NONE in the subject heading. There is no attachment but I’ve not been opening them anyway just deleting. Anybody know the story on these?

So what’s the deal with those spams?

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**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/none-e-mails/241212/2 "2004-04-21T14:29:44Z")

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Perhaps they are just testing to see if you will open the email so they know it’s a “good” email address. Spammers often put hidden url’s in their emails that will tell them if you opened it or not. That’s why you should never open an email that looks suspicious or is from someone you don’t know.

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/none-e-mails/241212/3 "2004-04-21T14:41:06Z")

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You can open emails as long as you have your mail program set so that it doesn’t render HTML, as I do, or if you set it not to load remote images when rendering HTML.

But in no case open unexpected attachments.

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**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\
**Post date:** [April 21, 2004, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/none-e-mails/241212/4 "2004-04-21T14:47:34Z")

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If you aren’t running Windows, the vast majority of attachments won’t hurt you.

And you’re pretty much invulnerable if you use a text-mode email client (no HTML, no JavaScript, no Java, etc.).