Spotting Fake Emails – How to Stay Safe

In a world with technology that’s constantly evolving, it’s easy to take advantage of the perks that come with innovation and invention. However, average citizens aren’t the only people taking advantage of these changes – scammers are increasingly finding new ways to defraud consumers and steal their personal information. One such method scammers tend to use is the email scam – phishing emails sent to people that are designed to look like they’ve been sent from reputable senders, such as a bank or popular retailer. These emails usually request payment information or a password update, complete with a harmful link to click. If you are unfamiliar with this scam, it can be easy to fall for it.

Here are a few things to look for if you receive an email that looks like a possible scam:

The email address domain

This is one of the easiest ways to spot a scam email. Is the email’s domain a legitimate website, such as polamfcu.com? Or is it a common email server, such as gmail or hotmail? If you receive an official-looking email and the domain isn’t tied to the website purporting to send it, it is likely to be a scam. Also, the domain could be a spoof of a common website to better fool a potential victim, so keep an eye out for that as well.

Spelling, grammar, and syntax.

If an email is sent from a reputable source, such as a bank or popular retailer, you can expect it to be well written. However, scammers often use basic online translators to compose the text of their emails, so if the spelling and/or grammar is off, it’s likely designed to phish your personal and financial information.

The links and attachments in the email.

Any links in emails sent by scammers are likely designed to steal your personal and financial information, so before you click anything, check the domain. Even if it feels like it could be real, scammers have grown increasingly talented when it comes to designing URLs that look like the real thing.