True, even mail from known senders has to be dealt with care as well. "holy crap, this is you" This scam could be avoided easily by checking the links act

True, even mail from known senders has to be dealt with care as well. "holy crap, this is you" This scam could be avoided easily by checking the links actual URL before clicking on it. And even if you click and end up with some malware infected website, disabling all unnecessary and insecure browser plugins and using NoScript should be enough protection. If it's not, the restricted privileges hinder the malware from doing serious damage (e.g. rewriting/deleting system files).