Heuristic warning

[andy62]

I had an innocuous e-mail from my isp wanadoo recently. Its heading referred to a Mothers Day message. An Avast warning appeared on my screen with "I frame tag found it may be dangerous"
I don't seem to be able to open this harmless e-mail. Can anyone explain.

[DavidR]

iFrames can import on-line content and can execute code, giving it great potential to cause harm. iFrames are usually used in regular web pages and are often used to import adverts, so seeing them in an email is unusual.

If you can't open it how do you know it is harmless?

When you are warned, you surely have the option to do nothing and accept the email?

When you get a warning as opposed to a virus alarm, you have to make decisions, do I know who the email comes from, is this something they are likely to send and/or were you expecting it?

The more unsure you are of the origin the more suspicious you should be, you can always delete it and tell them why and to send it again.

[andy62]

Thanks for reply Dave...still confused. E-mail came from Wanadoo  so obviously safe. The heading was one sentence about Mothers Day...offering some sort of deal. Did Avast pick it up because of the heading and if so why?
If then you are convinced it's harmless,as in my case,how do you open it and, what made Avast flag it in the first place?

[DavidR]

1. How do you know it came from Wanadoo (this can be faked), was it solicited (otherwise it's spam)

2. When avast warns you of it, it is just that a warning and you can chose to ignore it (unless you have set-up other actions, silent mode, etc. see image).

3. I doubt it had anything to do with the subject title/heading (unless there was a number of spaces together, but the message you say mentioned iFrame), so I'm reasonably it picked it up simply because of the iFrame tag.

I suggest you check out the avast help file for the information/actions in the Internet Mail provider.

[gizmo]

Hi
I got one of these warnings too, as I am also on Freeserve. I had another one a week or two back. As it was really just an ad, I had no qualms about getting rid of it immediately. Maybe I'm paranoid about bugs and things, but if a warning is given I think the safe option is the one to take. After all, that's why I have avast! in the first place.
bye...
 

[stevejrc]

Im on wanadoo UK and never receive any advert emails. Only emails about registration, "invoice is online message" and emails about changes to the company. Unless theres an option of allowing marketing rubbish, I dont think they send anything like that. Probably a spoof email...