Is online email from Yahoo safe from viruses if you just read your mail?

[techs]

Is online email from Yahoo, Hotmail etc. safe from viruses if you just read your mail and don't download attachments nor open them?

[Wayward Clam]

No email is 100% safe, but yes, using web-based email only and never opening attachments has got to be 99% safe. At any rate, it's a helluva lot safer than Outlook Express.

[techs]

That's the thing. I am thinking of switching some clients to web based email. Is it 99 percent or 100 percent safe if they only read and don't download or open attacments?

[geoscomp]

99 or 100%?..no..It is much safer than outlook or outlook express, but there are virii that do infect by the same means that infected web sites can infect..and if the virus is hidden in an html document that is the body of the email, then the possibility still exists even without opening attachments, etc. However, if you still install a good antivirus program on the users computers (with signature updates) then you are probably in the safest mode you can get in.

[SFLcowboy]

Yahoo has to be one of the safest forms of e-mail as far a scanning them for viri the only on sfare has to be hotmail aslong as you are just reading and not downloading but somtimes they can still sneak by i know i recived klez back when it first came out by downloading some pics from my grandma

Sincerly,
SFLcowboy