There Is a safe way on a PC / laptop by which you can open and check suspect emails if you’re using ‘old fashioned’ email programs - eg Outlook, Windows Mail (but not web based mail like gmail / googlemail)
Right click the email
Select "Properties’
Select “Details”
Select “Message Source”
You will then get all the internal bits of the email displayed and there are usually some pretty strong hints in there as to whether it is valid or not. Certainly enough that you can select a bit of text to google it to see if it has been reported by someone.
I had a quick look for a suspect one in my deleted folder and found one :
From :Barclayscard …(note the extra S)
Title “Credit Limit Increase”
This is immediately suspect because we don’t use Barclaycard but I had a look inside using the method above to find
Return-Path: anonymous@procam.ru
(Not sure if the .ru - Russia or Romania but it sure has heck has nothing to do with any bank account I hold !)
From: Barclayscard tranzaction@barclaycard.com
Not many UK people I know spell transaction with a Z
Your Barclaycard credit card limit is due for £3000 increase to be credited to your account. Please follow the link to agree you want us to proceed with this increase.
Very generous of them to credit me with £3000 into an account I don’t have with them
href="http://www.lafedibiou.com/ref/red.php
(Website something to do with racing in the French Camargue - not going in there !)
So I also googled the text about the increase and sure enough already reported as a Scam / spam. see :
Worst Attempt Scam of the week award | MotorhomeFun
I Never open emails which are even slightly suspect without first checking like this via the right click.
I have therefore Never infected any of my computers with a virus or any other nasty from an email I’ve opened and I’ve also never clicked on any link in any suspect email which would take me somewhere I really would not want to go !
It is always better to be safe than sorry and 99.9% of Paypal emails you are not expecting are not Paypal emails.