Avoiding Unwanted Viruses

If you're coming over from the newsletter, this is the continuation of the article in the February issue. If you're just joining us, here's some tips to avoid unwanted viruses. If you'd like the part of the article that precedes these tips, email kristen@verbalwise.com!

Follow these simple tips to avoid unwanted viruses:
1.) If you know the name of the person sending a message with an attachment, don’t automatically assume it’s from them. Look at the subject line. If it doesn’t make sense to you, don’t open it.
2.) Spam filters sometimes filter out perfectly good messages. Check them regularly to make sure wanted emails are not being filtered. If you find one, make sure to add the sender’s name to your contacts list and/or white list. See # 3 below for Outlook steps.
3.) Set up your spam filters to work for you.
a. In Outlook, go to Tools Menu, select Options, Choose the preferences tab (which will probably already be selected); choose the junk mail button; choose the safe senders tab; click the add button, type in an email address (tamme@verbalwise.com) which is good for people with personal emails like yahoo, gmail, etc. Or, you may entire a domain (@verbalwise.com), which will allow anyone from a specific company to contact you. This is a good idea for companies you trust and work with regularly.
b. In other email applications, it’s sometimes as easy as adding people to your contacts list. So, when you sign up for a newsletter or meet a new prospect, add the name and email address to your address book!
4.) VerbalWise does not send attachments unless we are working with a specific client who is expecting them. You may want to follow the same practice to help your recipients.

Hope these tips help you to avoid unwanted viruses (after all, what virus is wanted?) Feel free to comment if you have some tips of your own that go along with these!