How do I recognise scam emails?

Q I keep getting messages from an email address ending in @rocketmail.com. The message body asks me to click on a contained link, but I wonder if this is someone trying to infect my computer?

Although I just delete the emails I find it annoying that I am being contacted this way. Have you heard of this address before and is there anything I can do about it?
Tony Baker

A We haven’t heard of the specific address supplied by Mr Baker, but spammers employ literally millions of different email addresses. The simplest response we can give is that, if you don’t recognise the sender’s name or email address, then don’t trust the message content.

You are currently deleting these unsolicited emails and that is what we recommend you carry on doing.

If you want stop this type of message appearing in your inbox then there are a variety of ways to achieve this. Unfortunately, you didn’t tell us anything about your computer or email setup so we can’t offer specific guidance.

However, if you are using Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Windows Live Mail then look for the ‘junk email’ options.

Windows Live Mail, for example – which is Microsoft’s latest email application, available as a free download – offers several levels of spam filtering. To control how this works, start Windows Live Mail then click the Menus button in the upper-right corner of the screen.

Choose Safety options and then click the Options tab. By default, the junk email protection level is set to ‘Low’, which moves only the most obvious junk email into Windows Live Mail’s Junk E-mail folder.

To receive fewer junk messages, click to select the High radio button instead – though understand that by doing so some legitimate messages may be marked as spam and placed in the Junk E-Mail folder.