In this lesson we will:

• Introduce email.

• Discuss issues such as viewing your email and security.

• Look at the difference between POP and IMAP and why it matters.

• Setting up and viewing your email 

• Sending and receiving, forwarding, attachments and links

• Settings

• Common problems with email

• Show how to find help for all emails.

NOTE:  This class will only cover the workings of email.  We will not address the bigger issue (protecting yourself from malware) which is a critical part of using email.  We will address that when we do online safety.  However, keeping safe includes several tips including:

•Strong unique passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA)

•Caution opening attachments and clicking on links

•Being vigilant about phishing (verify sender addresses, avoid sharing personal information via email, don’t respond to unsolicited requests for personal information)

•Beware of Email scams (if it seems too good to be true, it probably is NOT true)

•Check for https and a padlock when accessing in a web browser

•Review account activity regularly

•Use a reputable email service (yes, some are better than others)

•Secure your device (passwords, PINS, etc.)

•Make sure your email is backing up in case of data loss or compromise

Email stands for “electronic mail”.

There are two types of emails:

•Free email services:  No cost to consumer, limited storage, may include advertisements.  Good at what they do.  Might not have great customer support.  Examples:  Gmail, Yahoo mail, Outlook)

•ISP Email:  Internet Service Provider email is provided as part of an Internet subscription package.  There is a cost, but it is part of the package.  Good customer support, may be confusing to set up.  Examples:  Cox, AT&T, Spectrum

Most email programs are encrypted from end to end (https).  So mail is somewhat safe.  This protection makes your email more secure against “eavesdropping”.  

Other considerations include account security (strong password), user error (phishing, clicking links, downloading attachments), your own device security (operating system up to date, good passcode) and the security of the Email server itself.

POP or IMAP?: There may have been a time when you were setting up an email and you were asked whether it was a POP account or an IMAP account. These are protocols for how to send and store emails.

Here are some things that you may experience and how to resolve them:

Forget password:  Use the “forgot password” or “reset password” feature

Email not sending or receiving: Check Internet connection, Verify connection settings (or contact Email provider), Make sure you are not out of cloud space, Check Spam, Use another way to access

Emails going to spam:  Mark legitimate emails as “not spam” or move to inbox, Avoid spam behavior when sending 

Attachments won’t open: Make sure you have software to open (PDF), verify it is not corrupted

Emails slow to load or send: Check Internet speed, clear email cache, reduce emails in folder, disable extensions

Emails hacked: Change password immediately, Enable two-factor authorization, Review settings for changes

Emails bounced back (undeliverable):  Check for typos in the email address, verify server not down, ensure your account is not flagged as spam, review error message

Emails missing or deleted: Check your trash or deleted folder, Make sure you don’t have a filter set, If you have POP make sure emails are not removed after downloading

Emails not syncing: Make sure all devices are set for IMAP and not POP, Make sure email is configured to sync all folders, confirm settings are the same of all devices

AOL:  https://help.aol.com/contact 

Apple mail, me.com, icloud.com:  https://support.apple.com/mail  

AT&T, Pacbell:   https://www.att.com/support/email-support/  

Cox email:  https://www.cox.com/residential/support/cox-email.html  

DSL Extreme:  https://www.dslextreme.com/support/contact  

Google:  https://support.google.com/mail/?hl=en#topic=7065107 

Netscape (AOL): https://helpconnect.netscape.com/  

Outlook, Hotmail, Live:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-au/office/how-to-get-support-for-outlook-com-f5482a98-616c-4d44-b7c5-8aaaadf5c11a  

Rediff mail: https://support.rediff.com/  

San.rr.com, Spectrum:  https://www.spectrum.net/support/internet/spectrum-basic-email-troubleshooting 

SBCGlobal (ATT):  https://www.sbcgloballogin.com/ 

Yahoo: https://help.yahoo.com/kb/account   

How can you tell if an email is malicious?

• Unknown sender or even a sender you recognize with a suspicious looking email.  Or the address is incorrect.  Check the email as well as the sender name.  And remember the sender address can be different by just a letter or two.  So, look carefully!

• The sender does not seem to know you.  They address you as “Dear Customer” or may have no contact information. 

• Embedded links:  You can see a link by hovering over it as it is on the page.  Before clicking on a link, hover your mouse over the link.  This will show you the actual web address embedded in the link.  Check this against the actual web address of the trusted source.  If you are still unsure, contact the source through another trusted channel (for example, a customer support number listed on the official website) to verify the email is legitimate.

• Language, spelling and grammar:  Many of these are created in other countries and translated into English.  Look for mistakes, even minor ones. 

• Content is bizarre or unbelievable:  Think of the Nigerian Prince. 

• There is a “call to action” button.  This is encouraging you to click there, which can trick you into downloading a malicious code. 

• The email is asking for sensitive information, hoping that one person will fall for it! (This is known as phishing)

Resource:  This lengthy web page covers lots of ways to see if an email is malicious.

How to tell if an email attachment is legitimate

Your email provider should be scanning for malicious attachments.  If a virus is included in the attachment that you are trying to send, you will see a “Virus detected”” error message.  You can choose to send without an attachment.  If the virus is attached to an email sent to you, they should reject the message and let the sender know.  If the virus is found in an attachment in your inbox, you won’t be able to download the attachment.  This is true in theory, but things can still get through.  So, keep reading!

• Listen to your anti-virus program.  If they suggest it may be malicious, don't open

• Look at who it is from.  Do you know them?  If not, don't open

• Does the email itself look normal?  Is it jumbled, have grammar mistakes, or make no sense?  If in doubt, don't open

• Filenames:  avoid bizarre filenames and misspelled words.  Spreadsheets are usually not named a random string of symbols (this would be suspicious as well)

• EXE files:  These are executable files.  Only open if you have downloaded them from a reputable source.  Do not open an EXE file in an email attachment.

• Zipped files:  If you have any doubt, confirm by phone or email (but not replying to this email because you are not sure if it is legitimate)

• Office documents:  These can contain hidden macros or scripts that will “allow macros” without knowing what you are allowing to run.  Macros can then enable installed malware.

• Keep your anti-virus up to date

There are things that you can do to keep your email account secure. Here are some of them:

• Use a strong password. And, if possible, change it frequently.

• Use two-factor verification. This would send you a text if you are trying to access your email from a new device. You would enter the code from the text to view email. This is done in account information>account security>two-step verification

• Make sure your recovery information is up to date (account information>account security>phone numbers and email address or add recovery email address

• Review account history when possible (account information>recent activity)

• Make sure to sign out of your email when using a public computer

• Make sure your browser is updated and you have a good antivirus program

Setting up in Settings:

When setting up an email account, you can create certain personal features. These include a signature, profile image and choice of themes. Not all features available on all apps or email servers. 

• Settings (Settings>settings): Here you can tweak settings including: text formatting, conversation view, undo send, desktop notifications and more. Try the following:

  • • • IMPORTANT SETTING for safety: Images>Ask before displaying external images

      • Format: Increase text size to Large.

      • Conversation view: Do you want all your notes about a certain topic kept in one spot (conversation view on) or do you want them to be separate based on when they were sent (conversation view off) 

      • Picture: Find a picture for your Google account.   Click “select a picture”, then upload one from your device. Don’t worry, we can change later.

      • Create contacts: Do you want Gmail to remember who you send messages to? If you click the first box, it will remember everyone under “other contacts”

      • Signature: In the text box, you provide a signature which will automatically be displayed whenever you use this email program. You can format in any way you wish. You can add an image. Sometimes, people include a quote. Create one!

      • Remember to click on “save changes” when you are done.

• Themes (settings>themes): Pick a theme. Notice you can use photos from your device as well. Hit “save” when done.

Anatomy of an Email:

• To, CC and BCC (All recipients can see address of To and CC recipients, reply all will go to all TO and CC recipients. Can’t reply all to BCC and you can’t see who else received note)

• Subject header: Important, should be brief and give overview of content.

• Salutation:  Unless very informal, use some type

• Body: Stick to point, try to organize content, bullet points good, font size for different people, NO CAPITALS (YOU ARE SCREAMING!!!) 

• Signing off: Can just double space and use name, or can add something like “Yours truly”, “Take care” or something similar

• Signature: You can just sign your name, or you can have an official signature which appears on all your emails. These are set up in settings.

SEND AN EMAIL:

• Hit compose

• Add a name at To:, CC:, and/or BCC

• Add subject

• Add something in body

• Click “send”

SEND AN ATTACHMENT:

Attachments may contain malware. Always provide a good introduction in your email so that the recipient knows it is from you.

• Click “compose”

• To: Desired sender

• Subject: Related to the attachment

• Body: Make sure you refer to the attachment in such a way that the recipient will identify it as legitimate.

• Click on the paper clip link near the bottom of compose

• Go to our files, locate the attachment that you are sending (such as a picture or a file) and click OPEN. This will attach to your email.

• Sign your note and “send”

Insert a picture

You can choose to insert a picture in an email instead of attaching it. To do so, you will click on the “insert image” icon and the image will be placed within the email.

OPENING AN EMAIL

Depending on your settings and the email, you may have some email features.  Below is a look at a typical email.  From this, note the different features (label, expand, print, open in  new window, a thread of conversations and the ways to respond).

RESPOND TO AN EMAIL

• Click on the subject line of an unread note (it will be in bold)

• To reply, click “reply” or on the arrow

• Do you want to reply to the whole group? Forward? Delete? Then click on the down arrow next to the reply arrow to see choices

• Write your note and click “send”

Questions?  Here are some assorted articles and tutorials which may help you.

Introduction: What is email? What are my options?http://www.toptenreviews.com/services/internet/best-free-email-services/

Which email services can offer me privacy and anonymity? 

https://www.techworm.net/2016/02/here-are-the-12-best-email-services-which-will-provide-you- anonymity-and-privacy.html

Fraudulent emails: Here is a great resource from UPS to help identify bad emails: http://www.ups.com/media/news/en/fraud_email_examples.pdf

Anti-malware program, free:  MalwareBytes (http://www.malwarebytes.org/)

• Video lesson:  Very basic introduction to Email .  Handout accompanies this video lesson (including setting up a Gmail account)

• Tutorial:  From GCFLearnFree, this is a basic email tutorial

• Tutorial:  Also from GCFLearnFree, this is a tutorial for Gmail

• Video:  This is a 12 part playlist of video tutorials on Gmail by Anson Alexander.  Excellent summary, although slightly outdated (2013).  Confused about the new version of Gmail?  This 2018 update from Anson Alexander will walk you through it.  

• Tutorial for Yahoo:  Do you use Yahoo?  This site offers some tips on organizing email in Yahoo.

• More Yahoo:  More tips on using Yahoo on this site

• Outlook:  For information on using Outlook, click on this Microsoft site.  

• Phishing:  Apple tells us how to avoid phishing on Apple customers (information is good for all of us!). Or website WebRoot provides more information on identifying and protecting against phishing.

• How about a short training to see how you do with phishing?  And a little more advanced information about phishing and spearphishing (phishing that targets an individual or company)

• Are your emails going to spam when you send to others?  Here are 77 reasons why!

• Help with specific ISP email problems:

  • AT and T help

  • Spectrum help

  • dsl extreme help