I’ve set up my Outlook Express so that the preview pane is disabled. Somehow I got the idea that I could safely view potentially malicious emails to determine if they are legitimate emails by right-clicking, selecting ‘properties’ and then the ‘details’ tab and then ‘message source’ . Usually if there is a legitimate email I can read the text and decide to open the email normally, but if there is a string of bizarre characters or obvious spam content I’ll just delete the email. Is this a good tactic to use, or am I just fooling myself?
It is a good tactic. I do it all the time with suspicious e-mails (not in Outlook Express, but the principle’s the same). By viewing the source you are just looking at harmless ASCII text.