Can I block attachments?

Is it possible to stop attachments from automatically being downloaded? I speak as a recipient. I have noticed a few soft porn files which I had no prior knowledge of. I have traced one which was an attachment to an email of the "I am Anya from Russia and I look for nice Englishman" variety. The attached photograph was very mild, but I have also found a PPS file containing more explicit photos. I am concerned that if one mild photo got on to my computer, then hard core illegal photos could also get loaded as attachments. Maybe somebody advertising a porn site? As far as the police are concerned, whatever is on my computer is my responsibility. Please don't say "you could always delete them". Deleting files does not erase the data, it only clears the pointers. The files can still be found. I suppose I could use the disk utility to clear my free space every so often, but I would rather not have them there in the first place. I would just like to be able to choose whether to download or accept attachments.

Cheers

Sorry, 'forgot to mention that I am using Mail on OS 10.6.

In the MacOS there's deleting - and then there's DELETING! MacOS is much more thorough and secure in removing files completely. Using Erasing Free Space overwrites data many times, but it is a hassle to do. You're possibly better off using the drag-to-trash > empty trash method of deleting unwanted attachments, rather than using Mail's delete facility.

However, that's not your principal concern. You can set up a filter in Mail to block the emails with the undesirable attachments, but you will still have to delete the email (I'm assuming here that you actually wish to receive those emails).

My email address was compromised a couple of years ago. With the help of my provider, I set up a filter at the server, which took care of the unwanted emails. The server deleted the emails automatically every 14 days, although I usually did the job myself. That way, the emails never made it to my computer. The task of using webmail to do what was necessary took about 5 minutes per week. Perhaps that's a method you could use.

PS. I use Eudora for email and it has the wonderful Nuke function that wipes an email utterly - all gone!