How Can You Identify a Phishing Email?
Around the world, 281 billion emails are sent per day. You can bet that a high percentage include attempts at phishing.
Because it can put your entire organization’s digital security at risk, phishing is a very serious threat. But how can you identify a phishing email and keep your company’s information safe and secure?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine whether or not an email is a phishing attack.
Does it have spelling and grammar errors?
First you have to understand what is phishing and how it works, this will help you fight against it. Phishing emails are usually full of mistakes that big companies wouldn’t make, as it would hurt their image. Cybercriminals intentionally fill their emails with errors to weed out those who are aware enough to detect phishing.
Sometimes, the spelling and grammar can be correct but the syntax can seem awkward or disjointed. This should be a red flag that the email isn’t a genuine one.
MORE : See Examples of Spear Phishing Emails
Is it asking for me to take immediate action?
Scammers count on your anxiety and panic to succeed in spear phishing attack. They’ll send emails urging you to take immediate action or risk account deactivation.
Always treat such emails as suspicious ones and never click the links. Instead, type in the site name yourself so you can be 100% sure that you’re not on a spoofed or fake website. That way, you can check if the request is real and take care of it if needed.
MORE : Phishing vs Spear Phishing
Does it have an attachment?
Alarm bells should be ringing in your head if you receive an attachment and you weren’t expecting one, especially if it’s from someone you don’t know. Always ignore those and send the emails straight to the trash to avoid accidentally clicking on them in the future.
Also, it never hurts to be extra cautious. Even if you’re expecting an attachment, always verify it with an email, text, or call to the sender before you open it.
MORE : How Spear Phishing Prevention Works?
Does it have a weird link?
If you’ve asked yourself all of the above questions and still can’t tell if it’s a phishing email or not, try hovering your mouse over the embedded link. Many malicious links redirect to a spoofed URL, but you can usually see the original site name in your email. If the embedded link is strange, you most likely have a phishing email on your hands.
Stop phishing emails dead in their tracks
By going through these phishing prevention best practices whenever you receive an email, you can fend off any sinister attacks from cybercriminals or it is better to use phishing prevention service. So if someone asks you: “how to protect against phishing,” you can now pass this useful information onto them.
MORE : Know the Difference Between Phishing and Spear Phishing
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