McAfee Total Protection v16.0 (R21): Real-time email scanning?

[JRMlaw]

I'm running TP v16.0 in Windows 10 Pro (v1903). I don't see any setting in TP for real-time email scanning specifically -- there's real-time scanning, but it doesn't seem to mention email-scanning anywhere.

Does anyone know for sure whether TP is, in fact, scanning incoming email?

[Peacekeeper]

Real time scanning scans anything you open such as attachments and downloads. 

So the email if carrying a virused file as an attachment would not infect you. That said I am unsure if the email itself is scanned as it is downloaded. Better await a mod's comment

[sivasubramanian]

@JRMlaw 

Email scanning feature is available in My Privacy  >> Anti-Spam >> Outgoing email scan (last option in the deck>

Regards
Siva

If this information was helpful in any way or answered your question, will you please select Accept as Solution in my reply and together we can help other members? give Kudos if appropriate

[Peacekeeper]

That is for outgoing emails. poster wants incoming scanned. Just getting in so an answer can be here before poster returns.

@JRMlaw 

I would add that email inbound scanning of attachments was an option back in 2014 ish versions but the various Real time scanning options from then were pruned. I feel this is as as I mention above RTS is there checking everything you do.

[Sudhakar_A_K]

Hi @JRMlaw 

•  Real-time scanning checks files for viruses each time you access them.
•  Anti-Spam checks your incoming email messages to determine if they are legitimate.
  (Anti-Spam lets you customize how it detects spam. You can adjust how aggressively to filter messages, specify what to look for in a message, and select character sets that you want to block. You can create custom filters to fine-tune which messages Anti-Spam identifies as spam. For example, if unsolicited email that contains the word "mortgage" is not filtered, you can add a filter that contains that word.)
•  Anti-Spam feature is available in Settings>> My Privacy  >> Anti-Spam >>

[JRMlaw]

I did not have anti-spam turned on before, but I do now.  What I am asking, though, is whether TP is identifying threats when they arrive in my inbox as opposed to identifying them only when I try to open them.

Specifically, this week I've received two email from "Amazon" claiming that I owe a balance, each of which has a .IMG file attached.  Of course, I did not do anything with the attachments, but I was curious about whether they were dangerous, and if so, why TP didn't do something to flag them or to warn me. I'd like to know if they're dangerous, but I'd rather have TP tell me while they're in my inbox, as opposed to forcing me to save them to my HD and then scan them there.

It seems to me more prudent to scan them when they arrive as opposed to when they are opened.  (What if I get an email with an infected attachment and forward it to someone who doesn't have an anti-virus running -- then I have passed along a virus because TP didn't warn me, since I didn't open it, but the infection has spread.)

[Peacekeeper]

Thanks that forward issue is important but anti spam might now cover that as it scans outgoing emails. I am nearly sure there is no incoming scanning.

See what the answer is I also interested in definitive answer.

[sivasubramanian]

@JRMlaw 

If you have installed McAfee Anti-Spam it will check the emails accordingly and segregate as SPAM/Phishing if it is so & move it to McAfee Anti-Spam folder. 

Regards
Siva

[cyberdude]

@sivasubramanian 

hello Siva,

i have followed  this topic with interest and would like to ask about Real time scanning;

does Total Protection offer protection for Email attachements ?

meaning 

does it provide  protection from potentially malicious content which gets downloaded or received as attachments in phishing emails that  removes suspicious scripts from files and sanitizes the files ?

[JRMlaw]

"Spam" and "phishing" are different than virus-infected.  (And saying that TP will do something with an outgoing email may or may not be useful in the scenario I described above: If I try to forward an email with an infected attachment, TP may or may not stop it depending on whether it identifies the email as spam or phishing.)

So, it seems that you are saying that TP v16 does *not* scan incoming email attachments for viruses; it will scan an email attachment only if the user opens it.

To my more tech-savvy friends: Is this the best way for McAfee to handle the virus-infected-attachment threat?