Use email

Before you set up your account

In this chapter, we’ll guide you step-by-step through the process of setting up an email account. But first, you’ll need to pick your provider. 

Pick an email provider

There are many providers you can use. Some are free. Others are part of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) package with your broadband. There are also separate, paid for services. All of them give you an email address. This is how people identify and contact you online. For instance, yourname@emailservicename.com.

Getting to your emails

There are two main ways to get to your emails.

You can:

What you can see and do

The email sites and apps may look slightly different, but they all let you see and do the same kind of things. 

What you'll see

• Create folders to hold similar emails – For instance, a ‘bills’ folder for any payment-related emails.
• Move emails – Between your inbox and other folders, to make them easier to find.
• Select multiple emails – For instance, to delete more than one at the same time. Look for ‘Select’ or a button to the left of each email.

How to send an email

Top tips for email writing

Type in the names last

Finish writing your message first, then fill in the ‘to’ field. If you fill these in first, you might send an unfinished email before you’ve checked it.

Reply vs Reply All

If someone has sent an email to a group of people, you might just want to respond to the sender. So you would select ‘Reply’ – often shown as a single arrow button.

If you want to reply to everyone, you’d pick the ‘Reply all’ button. This might look like a double arrow.

It can be quite easy to pick that button when you only mean to reply to the sender. So take your time to check, before you send.

Tone of voice

When we write an email, we often type exactly what we would say when we talk. But this doesn’t always go down well. The way you write something sometimes sounds different to how you’d say it. People might read your words differently to how you meant them. Think about this when you’re writing emails. 

Using email in the workplace

The emails you write at work are different to those you send personally.

Watch this video to learn how to stay safe while using email in the workplace.

Keeping yourself safe

Emails are a great way to send and receive messages and information. But this means people can use them to try to steal your details. So let’s look at how you can keep yourself safe from this kind of thing.

Email scammers can:

How can you identify these?

Scam emails can be tricky to spot. Scammers tend to make their messages seem important, urgent and topical. This is so you feel pressured into acting.

What to do

If you get an email you think may be a scam, don’t select any links in it. Delete it. Some email services have a ‘delete and report’ feature. This lets you report it as suspicious at the same time as removing it from your inbox, in one click or tap. You can also forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk.

So, you should always:

If you think you’ve been scammed

The first thing to do is contact Report Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or online at https://www.reportfraud.police.uk/ . If you're in Scotland, you can contact Police Scotland on 101.

Next, take steps to stop further damage:

Want to learn more?