Checked your email today and found a great offer…or a warning from your bank or other website asking you to update your login details to avoid your account being closed down? Theses are just a couple of examples of the scams that arrive in our inbox almost daily and while some are easy to spot, others may look more legitimate…so how can you tell?
Well it does seem kind of obvious, but look for spelling mistakes in the subject heading or contents of the email. Then within the body of the email you may see a link to a seemingly legitimate website, but in most email programs if you hover your mouse pointer over the address it will reveal the actual destination…which will be quite different it’s pointing to a fraudulent website.
Finally, look who the email is from. Is the return address even associated with the company that the sender claims to be representing…just another sign that the email is anything but what it claims to be.
5 tips to protect against scam emails
- Always treat email requests for personal information with suspicion, particularly ‘urgent’ requests and those threatening a service suspension.
- If you are unsure, don’t respond to the email, instead phone the company to check its legitimacy.
- Report suspicious emails to SCAMWatch.
- Run an effective anti-spam solution, which may be included with your Internet security software (it’s also built into many cloud based email services like Outlook and Gmail).
- Run up-to-date Internet Security software – which means keeping your subscription current.
