Hotmail provides an easy way to tell apart good and bad emails.
RED == High Risk== Phishing/Spoofing
If there is a red box on top of the email in the reading pane window (see below), Hotmail has determined the email to be a fraudulent, malicious email because either the email contains phishing content or the email’s source can not be verified. Such emails are considered dangerous and should only be opened if you are confident about the email’s source or content.
YELLOW == Medium Risk == Unknown sender
An email is marked with a yellow box if you do not know the sender i.e. the sender is not on your safe sender’s list. If you do wish to receive email from this sender and want to add the a sender to the safe sender’s list, you can click on “Mark as Safe”. If you do not want to receive email from this sender, you can click on “Mark as Junk”.
WHITE == For your information
If Hotmail considers an email as harmless however the mail has been junked because of your preferences (such as because the sender is on the blocked sender’s list), Hotmail adds a white information box such as the one shown below.
