Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Some of you techies out there might have the answer to my query. I bought a book from a well known, reputable website and disputed the postage charges. They asked me to send them a screen-shot of the emailed invoice so that they could check the carriage charges. I brought the email up that was displaying the invoice and, after saving a copy to my download folder, I 'sent' the display. A little later in the afternoon I retrieved the copy from my download file that I had made and was surprised to see that the whole of my email page was shown with 'active' links. I changed the passwords etc for the email account but my browsing history links were still live and those sites could be accessed from my downloaded copy. I've now deleted my browsing history too. My question is will the recipient of my screenshot also be able to access the live links. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area 51 Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 No tech expert here Barrie, but I get the jist of your prob.. if you have only sent a "screen shot" it will be just that with no way on the image to click active links! If you copied the links and included them in the body of the email, I think they are then a hyper link or something and this can be accessed/followed.. I little like the links we see added to this forum. An image however is just that, so I reckon non of the data can be followed, wise to change all associated passwords though.. you never know where these messages are off too once you press "send" I'm sure some more tech knowledgable types will be along shortly to confirm the actions needed.. Hope its nothing of concern for you, Cheers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Thanks for your reply Area 51. Yes it was just a screenshot but it wasn't just the picture of the invoice that was on the screen that went it was the whole of my inbox page. Has me concerned as especially the downloaded copy that I made of this page as a reference has active links in it. Perhaps it was relating to the links stored on my laptop and these would not be accessible as live links when sent to another computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Area 51 Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Hi Barrie, so long as its the screen shot they wont be able to "click and follow a link" .. try this yourself by opening the image sent to them, and make sure non of the links work. The only other check I can think of, is to look at some of the links you are concerned about and then type these into your web browser search bar .. you must type in and the full stops, slashs letter etc.. if you do this and make non of the ones youre concerned take them anywhere.. if they do, ensure you change passwords associated with these sites... If you want to do this in future and use windows, press the Ctrl + Alt keys together and then Print Screen all at the same time, then open Microsoft Paint (comes with windows), then press Ctrl + Alt and V.. this will put the screen shot into Microsoft Paint, here you can adjust it / crop it to hide any private info... Works for me Barrie, but I know the feeling when you have pressed "send".. check twice, press once!.. Cheers for now Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Skilbeck Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 The other thing you could do, is download Cute PDF and then you could print the e-mail to a PDF file and send that. Just like posting them a print out of the e-mail. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 I've been thinking over what I did and this was: I brought up the email from the bookshop (Amazon - World Books) and 'click' copied the image of the invoice on the screen, sending this to my download files. I then replied to the email requesting a screen shot adding the downloaded image as an attachment. I fear that this was not the right thing to do as the links on the attachment might prove to be live on the recipient's computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 It's a pity that I didn't know of that Frank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Whybrow Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 If you're using a PC, as against an Apple, the Ctrl + Prtsc will save the current active window as a bitmap file on the clipboard; you can then paste that into an email message or a document. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Well the damage may have been done now. I wasn't aware of your tip either Martin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Barrie - firstly I doubt there's any harm done, but it certainly did no harm changing your passwords. I'm not clear from your explanation exactly what you sent to the supplier. You say "I brought up the email from the bookshop (Amazon - World Books) and 'click' copied the image of the invoice on the screen, sending this to my download files." What do you mean by 'click' copied? Did you press 'PrtScr' to get a 'picture' of the screen or something else? How did you "send" this image (or whatever) to your download files? And what is the extension of the filename in your download files. Eg. something.jpg I assume you're using webmail - ie. email accessed through your web browser, in the same way you access this site, and others? If that is the case then any links that are visible in an email could be accessed by a third-party. For instance if you had an email that said, "Please click on www.modelflying.co.uk" then that would be accessible by anybody. But unless your email supplier is run by a bunch of half-wits then there should be next-to-no chance of anybody actually accessing your email account. For instance, if I choose to access my btinternet emails via the yahoo webmail service (I usually use Outlook on my PC instead) then the URL I can see in the address bar on the browser is something like; **LINK** (Note that even though I'm sure you can't do anything with it, I'm not going to give you the 13-digit number as well!) Anyway, even armed with the full version of that URL you can't get to my emails from another PC. Or even from a different browser on the same PC. I would hope that all other webmail services would be equally inaccessible to others by simply copying the URL and running on a different PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Bernard Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Barrie, A screenshot of a web page with links on it is just a picture and the links don't react to a mouse click at all. The only link information a recipient would get is whatever is showing on the screen at the time, e.g. a URL in the address box. Where you do need to be careful is sending text with links in, e.g. Forwarding a mail,as then those can be actioned. Colin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 26, 2015 Author Share Posted August 26, 2015 Well, on my inbox page I right clicked on the image (the invoice) on the email received from the book supplier and chose 'Copy'. (the invoice was sent to me as an attachment to the original email). I then downloded, what I thought would only be the attached picture. I then replied to the received email with my downloaded copy of 'the picture' as an attachment. Later in the day I thought that I'd just have another look at my download and to my surprise I saw that I had attached the live inbox page, complete with links. I immediately set about changing passwords and details on important accounts. I also cancelled my email account and uninstalled my Firefox browser. I also cleared browser history as well as cookies. Though I don't think that changing browsers benefitted me much. I sent the download image to myself and saw that the links were presented in list form with no graphics. Anyone trying to access my old email account will have to login and the login details are now defunct and the account has been cancelled anyway. The links do take you to the main yahoo website. So I live in hope that nobody will be able to progress beyond that. I'm assuming, hopefully, that Amazon has tight controls on emails received and that these are safely tucked away in some archive. Edited By Barrie Dav 2 on 26/08/2015 21:42:21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Privett Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 OK, the invoice was probably sent to you as a pdf file attachment. So not an 'image', but a document. I don't see how saving that and sending it would have sent the rest of the email page though. Even if you did send them a page with links to your email on it they wouldn't be able to do anything with those links - especially after you've changed the password. As you say, the links will now simply go to the yahoo login page. Cancelling the account seems like overkill to me. And I can't see any point at all in uninstalling your browser and/or deleting history and cookies. Whatever links you may or may not have sent out, your browser and history/cookies are irrelevant. Still, better to be cautious than not! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barrie Dav 2 Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 'morning John, Well, I can't say how it was transmitted to me but I did send off the whole live email page to the seller. I sent the download that I'd originally copied, to my granddaughter and she tested the page on her laptop but like you with your example, she only got a 'Sign-in' page so it seems as that's covered. The Yahoo 'Home' link is active though and takes you to the main Yahoo page. I had thought that when I typed a website address into my own browser it might also appear in the address field on the Yahoo page. This does not appear to be the case however so I'm hoping that I'm secure. Perhaps I could block the Yahoo site as a further precaution? Thanks to all of you gentlemen who replied to my post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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