What should I do with this message?
I do know the sender, but am not interested in this attachment OR I don't know the person who sent the message...
If you are not interested in the attachment, just delete it.If you do not know the person who sent the message and it is unusual for you to receive e-mail from an unknown sender, you may choose to delete it or see below for additional guidance.
Please note: Since viruses use a variety of means to infect machines (not just email), your machine still needs to run an anti-virus package with an updated virus definition file (regardless of what you decide to do here).
I know the sender of the message and it looks like something they might send me...
This could be a "virus" using information on the sender's computer to create a "personalized" message to you. Prior to opening the attachment, it would be wise to contact the sender and confirm they intended to send you the attachment. If their machine is infected, your inquiry would come as surprise to them and help alert them to the infection.I was expecting an attachment OR the sender confirmed they did indeed send the message and it is something I want.
Even though you may feel confident that an attachment is virus free you still need to proceed with extreme caution.1) Make sure you have an anti-virus software installed.
2) Make sure your anti-virus software's virus list is current.
3) Use your e-mail client's "Save as ..." feature for saving attachments to save the attachment as a file under the original name listed in the warning message. (Please see your e-mail client's help feature for specific instructions.)
4) Make certain your anti-virus software has scanned the file. Do a manual scan if you are at all unsure.
5) If the file appears to be virus free, double click on it to execute.
6) Please be aware that new viruses appear all the time and the file you just executed could contain a new virus which your anti-virus software can not detect. After a few days or so, update your anti-virus software's virus list and scan the executable again.
