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Step 1
The first and perhaps most important thing you can do is to monitor your email carefully before opening it. The golden rule is if you don’t know who it is from, be wary of reading it.
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Step 2
Never open attachments in an email from somebody you have never heard of or from an otherwise dubious source. Many email attachments can contain viruses or programs designed to damage your computer in some way. If you're unsure of the attachment, reply to the email and verify that they did send you something–and confirm that it is safe to open.
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Step 3
Emails that claim to be from your bank or financial institution and ask for account information, passwords or other personal information are a red flag. Your bank would never ask you for account information in an email–after all, they already know it. The popular site Paypal, for example, never asks for personal information in an email.
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Step 4
Emails that have a sense of urgency are suspect and may be attempts at phishing. A fake email may indicate that your account will be closed or you will be liable for charges if you don’t address the problem or contact the sender immediately.
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Step 5
Fake emails will often contain poor grammar and misspelled or missing words. Supposedly, the mistakes actually help the sender of the fake email to avoid being caught by email “spam” filters.
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Step 6
Some phishing emails don’t bother to direct you to a fake Web site. Instead they ask you to input personal or financial information in a form in the email itself. The same thing applies if you receive one of these–just delete the email.
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Step 7
Depending on your Internet provider, you may be able to block email from a particular sender or domain if you don’t want to receive anything from them again.
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Step 8
And if you know–or think–that you have been the victim of phishing or identity theft, contact affected entities as soon as possible. Most banks and credit card companies have 24-hour customer service or emergency numbers to report such an occurrence.
