Every person uses some type of email service, mostly when corporations give a new address to their employees. But, due to this high demand, fake emails are regularly used for phishing, tricking users into believing certain information that results in huge damage not only for the user but also for the organization. Recognizing these emails is not that difficult; this article will give some advice and tips to avoid falling into this trap.
Fake emails can put your device in danger
Fake emails are the perfect facade to give any cybercriminal access to devices and systems, so any user and organization should be aware of this. To prevent getting scammed by any of these emails, users must be aware of some details that mark the email as fake. There are several reasons why cybercriminals prefer to use emails to trick users into giving them what they ask.
- Emails accounts are free and easy to create.
- Anyone can send several emails at once.
- They are pretty fast to be delivered.
Many devices can be used to send and receive emails; just an internet connection is needed.
Learn to recognize fake emails
Recognizing these fake emails is not that difficult, even when each email service provides great controls to label an email as spam, meaning that the content can be dangerous, but some of those emails can pass those controls. For that reason, users must consider these signs :
- The sender has a generic public domain: many important brands and companies work under their own domains, which means that they can’t send an email under an address like [email protected].
- The domain is slightly wrong or misspelled: users tend not to check the senders thoroughly, which is the first mistake. Many users can be easily tricked with domains like amazons.com. It’s pretty similar to the real one, so each user must check the sender before clicking or downloading any file.
- The content of the email is poorly written: one of the best ways to check if the email is legitimate is by reading the content with a professional eye. A corporate or business email will never have problems with grammar or spelling. If the user finds several of these mistakes, it’s a big sign of phishing.
- The urgent: many fake emails are always about urgency and acting as soon as possible. But users must have a cold head over this. If it is truly an emergency, a call or even a text will be faster than an email. Also, if the story is coherent, why is the solution presented through an email?
- Rare attachments or links: just like it is wiser to check the sender thoroughly, this is also recommended for attachment files or links. If they are pretty rare and don’t look safe, it is better to mark the email as spam and then proceed to eliminate it. When marking it as spam, the server will alert their control to be aware of this type of email.
- Promises of financial rewards or penalties: everybody should be realistic. A promise of financial reward is pretty much a scam; after all, nothing is completely free in this life. About the penalties, if the user doesn’t have problems with justice and nothing to hide, there is no reason to be scared of an email.
Ultimately, users should trust their instincts. Many times than not, people are aware of fake emails, but against their good sense, they believe what the content is showing. And this also happens with direct messages on any social media, and even instant messaging apps. Every user must be highly aware of these traps, scams, and fake information. That way, everybody can be protected online.
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