There is a new spam going out there that comes addressed to you as usually “Hey [your name]” or I would get it as “Hey Dwight,” or something like that. The spam/junk filters sometimes catch it, but some will come through to your inbox.

Consider who it is showing as from, and if you would not get emails addressed like that, just delete it. If you are not sure opening the email will not cause any harm, you will find a short note in it (sometimes with your name) and then a link to something. I have seen it say it is about some type information you wanted or pictures or to a map location. However, the link on all the ones I have seen has been a bad looking link that that did not look like a site we would go to.

Do not click on the link. If you do, apparently they either send your address book to them or they forward the message to everyone in your address book. You can hover your mouse pointer over the link (do not click) and see where it really links to. The ones I have seen so far are not masking, but they will start that. They have written a simple email program that uses the names in the address books with the addresses so that the messages have your name on them, which in the past was usually a way to tell it was not spam, as the spammers just had your address; so this is a new level.

If you are not sure a message is really from the person you think it is, do not click on the links in it. If the links are not easy to tell where they go to and sound like they are legitimate, do not click them. Do not just go by what shows as they can have something totally different in the message. Hovering over it will either pop-up the real link, or it will appear at the bottom of the page. Watch the whole link as I saw one in an email that started off www.googlemapps.com, but when you looked further, it said www.googlemaps.com.dwightwatt.com (actually not that address, that is one I made up, but dwightwatt.com is actually ok, it is my website). Be careful as you use the internet and email.

Send your questions to Dwight Watt at dwight@dwightwatt.com. He teaches at a technical college in northwest Georgia and does consulting work for businesses and individuals. His website is dwightwatt.com.