How to Recognize a Spoofed Link in an Email

A spoofed link appears to take you one place, like Yahoo.com, and actually takes you to another place, like a phisher’s copy of a legitimate page. The phisher or scammer then uses the information that you enter on their page to steal your account or personal information. Learning to recognize these links in email can save you a lot of pain later.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Email account
• Computer with Internet access

1. Read the entire email. If you are asked for personal information, or directed to a Web site where you are required to give that information, DO NOT DO IT.
2. Visit the Web site by typing the address into the address bar and make sure whether there is a problem or everything is fine.
3. Report to your email provider by forwarding the email if there is a problem (the email, and therefore the link, is a spoof). Then delete it.

Tips & Warnings

• Always type in the address of the site you want to visit, ie: paypal.com versus clicking a link.
• If you get an email saying that your account is about to be deleted and signing in to the Web site does not produce a similar message, then you can be pretty sure that the email is a fake.
• Never open an email from someone that you don’t know. Unless it is a business account, no one that you don’t know should have or be able to use your email. Most is junk, and the rest is trying to scam you or sell to you.
• Never give out personal information over your email.
• Never use email links to get to important Web sites like eBay or PayPal.
• Don’t rely on reading the link or address bar. There are ways to change these displays to fool you and your computer.