Here are some simple things you can look for to detect spam, though the criminals are getting more clever every day. This one is fairly obvious, in my opinion. It is a "response" to an order you never placed. Looking at the email address, it is from Gmail. Companies don't use Gmail. Normally I would not even open the email, but I wanted to give a real life example and I have other protections in my email system so it will not run any scripts automatically. Does that mean it is foolproof? Not at all. Nothing is foolproof once you are connected to the Internet. NEVER open the attachment, and yes, the emphasis is on never. Never open a link from the email either. If it looks valid, go to the company's website via either a known good link or looking it up in a search engine, then contact customer services or look at messages if the site has that capability. I will unsubscribe to known subscriptions, but not to unknown subscriptions. For example, I don't have any issue unsubscribing to a West Coast Shaving, Captain's Choice, Stirling Soaps, etc. (I haven't, even though I don't purchase things unless there is a need and therefore rarely purchase from them) but I wouldn't have an issue clicking on the unsubscribe link if I found myself getting too many emails from them (they all have been pretty respectful of my time). Another thing to look for is misspellings. Those from other countries where English is not the native language often misspell common words. That is not an issue here on the forums, where we understand that it is not everyone's native language. In fact, personally, I don't mind seeing messages in any language here. It is my responsibility to send it through an online translation site to read it. Unless it is Spanish. I am learning Spanish and getting better every day. Better, not good. Grin.
