How to Spot a Phishing Emails Scam

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By Diane Cass
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Phishing Emails Scam

Phishing emails are scams designed to steal your identity or your money, plain and simple. Learn how to spot them to avoid falling prey to their deception.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Phishing Emails

IDENTIFY A FALSE SENSE OF URGENCY: One of the biggest give-aways that you are being baited for a phishing emails scam is a false sense of urgency. They make you feel that you MUST respond IMMEDIATELY, or your account will be in jeopardy, your passwords will be unusable, someone has infiltrated your account please change you password, etc...name the crisis. All are designed with one thing in mind...to get you to give them your password or other personal information. Never give out this information at the prompting of an email, a phone call or a letter. If you aren't sure, go directly to the website that you have the account at and ask them if they sent you the email. 9 times out of 10, they didn't and will be glad of you reporting it. DON'T use any links from the email.
Step 2

IDENTIFY GENERIC GREETINGS: Often a phishing emails scam will have a generic greeting such as, "Dear user", that is a sure sign of a phishing scam. The scarier ones, though, use your name. Again, never respond to these emails. Go directly to the website where you have your account and ask them if they sent it.
Step 3

BEWARE OF FAKE LINKS: Usually these phishing scams have links to fake sites. They may have the appropriate logos, and look real, but don't trust them. Some email providers have systems that detect this and will warn you. My Yahoo account has saved me a number of times, when the email looked so real, I couldn't tell the difference. Their warning saved me from making a huge mistake.
Step 4

FIND THE SENDER'S ADDRESS: These can be easily faked. Never use the sender's address to determine if it is real or not.
Step 5

BEWARE OF ATTACHMENTS: Never click on an attachment. I don't ever open attachments unless it was sent by a personal friend or family member, or if I am expecting one from a company I am doing business with.
Step 6

Phishing Emails

REPORT PHISHING EMAILS: Report phishing scams to your email provider, and to the website the scammers are impersonating. They will go after them to try to shut down their operation.