One of the benefits of email is sharing of information which sometimes include documents, photos, and video-clips attachments, with colleagues, friends and associates within and outside our social circle. While email platform is beneficial for our intended correspondences, it is not the most secure form of information exchange.
The major risk to transmitted data emanate from people getting access to your account, or from sending data to impostors. In cause of communications, one can get infected with unsolicited codes in form of spyware, adware, malware, virus, worms and other cyber-threat scripts.
These infections can pose as a useful links in your mails while others can be executable files masqueraded as pdf, word document or even picture (steganography) attachments. As soon as you are lured into opening such file(s), the real script will be installed and perform unwanted action on your computer, phone or gadget.
The harmful part is that some of the scripts might run at the background and do the damage without your knowledge and if not detected and curtailed on time, it can lead to one getting his or her files and or information sullied.
In some sever cases your account can even be hijacked especially if the email contains trojan or phishing codes that relays your account details to a remote attacker as soon as the spoofed links or attachments are clicked on.