97% of email is spam. It’s easy to tell the difference between a spammy “Viagra” email and an important email from your boss – at least I hope so. But, spammers are getting sneaky. Here’s an email I just received this morning. Can you tell if it’s spam or not spam?

The suspect email

So, is it spam?

Surprisingly, yes! It is spam. But, how can we tell?

There are a few giveaways on this one:

• I’m not close friends with anyone named “Sarah”
• At the top of the message (in the light blue area), Outlook said that it blocked some pictures (this not unusual, but is suspect in combination with the other giveaways on this list)
• The blue links in the email “point” to locations other than what you’d think

The last item is the real proof. When I put my mouse over the first blue link in the message, Outlook tells me that, if clicked, I’d be taken to a tracking site. While this is not unusual for marketing emails, it is suspect in the case of this simple e-card email.

Proceed with caution

Since it looked suspicious to me, I didn’t click any of the links. I did, however, open up Chrome (my web browser of choice) and go directly to egreetings.com to claim this so-called e-card with the “code” in the email above. Needless to say, it didn’t work.

The bottom line

If you get an email or attachment that you’re not expecting, be suspicious. No matter how tempting it may look, chances are it’s probably spam.

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