6 Tips to Never Fall for Fake Emails Again | Phishing Protect With Total Security

Phishing, this web-based identity theft technique that lures you through a false email, is raging on the web more than ever. To make it easier to spot these scams that tend to steal your confidential information and, by extension, your money, we are sharing with you six easy ways to spot these fraudulent emails.

Phishing is a technique that allows hackers to steal personal data (password, credit card number, etc.) from a deceptive email that often leads to a link or a part attached, to a fake site imitating that of a company or an official body (bank, merchant site, access provider, etc.).

This type of electronic message plays on your desires, your empathy, and your vulnerability to outright swindle you, the goal being to break into your computer system to steal your confidential information. One-click in the wrong place and it's the door open to hackers in your system.

To avoid being deceived, we give you some essential keys to detect these fraudulent e-mails without falling into the extreme "if I do not know, I throw in the trash", rudely effective, certainly, but a little too radical.

1. Beware of Shady Messages in General

Evermore deceitful, these phishing emails often masquerade as a well-known company (PayPal, Amazon and many others have already been imitated), present themselves as technical support for a particular company, or may even attempt to make you believe that they are an acquaintance in distress. Most of the time they play on your emotions, insist, ask you to act quickly, and/or to warn as many of your contacts as possible. In these cases, beware!

2. E-mails Offering You to Make Money All Lie

A message received on your mailbox tells you that you will win a large sum of money if you help someone or even a friend in distress. This is obviously a scam! We remember the famous e-mail from the "Nigerian prince" dating back to the 90s, which promised the recipient millions of dollars if he transferred a sum of money. Many other examples followed, replaced today by messages where criminals pretend to be a company, an organization, or even a friend in order to extract money from you. Officials will never ask you for money by email, so delete this type of email promptly.

3. Check the Sender's Email Address

The sender's address is a very good clue to detecting a scam. If the address does not have the appearance of that of a professional (it does not contain the name of the company for which it is impersonating, for example, contains a large number of digits and/or no name of a person or a service is not complete), it will surely be a false address.

4. Check the Font and Spelling

Fraudulent messages are often very poorly written and their formatting leaves much to be desired. Try to spot any suspicious signs: an unusual typeface, a high number of spelling mistakes, syntax errors, pixelated images, etc.

5. Examine the Links in the Email

Be careful, never click on a link contained in a questionable email! On the other hand, you can simply hover your cursor over this link to display the corresponding address at the bottom left of your browser. If it has nothing to do with what the link claims to be, definitely don't click on it.

6. Don't Give in to the Urgency or the Threat

Some phishing techniques are based on urgency and threat, such as "your account is expiring, you must renew your credentials" or "an unauthorized login attempt has been detected, act quickly before your account is terminated. blocked for security reasons ”. You are then asked to connect as quickly as possible, to change your password via a link, or to change your secret questions. The goal here is obviously to easily obtain your identifiers.

Never reply to or click on anything in this type of massage. Trusted services and businesses don't work this way with their customers/subscribers. Generally speaking, no legitimate e-mail will ask you for confidential information. If you receive a message related to the procedure for changing or resetting your password, it is only if you have requested it.

In conclusion, if you encounter any of these scenarios, be vigilant. While it is in principle not dangerous to open this type of e-mail, it is on the other hand almost always harmful to reply to it, to download its attachments, or to click on the links which are there. Don't waste your time or take any risk: don't open the questionable email and delete it immediately.

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