Avoiding Email Scams

Let’s get real, online scams are everywhere, especially email scams. I for example have received several email scams pretending to be from a very reputable invoicing company who I actually do use. At first glance the emails appear to be legit, however, the biggest giveaway with these were they were going to an email address not actually associated with my account. Scams like these are far too common an easy to fall victim to. I want to take a moment to break down some common email scams and how you can avoid falling victim to them.

Avoiding Email Scams – Know What to Look for and What to Avoid

 

Recognizing a Legit Email From a Scam Email

Email is a great way to receive fake content (scams). Anyone can go out and buy a list of emails, which is considered against the “law” in the digital world. However, this happens all of the time and it is incredibly easy to do. Be prepared that you will always receive emails you did not actually subscribe to and they could be from scammers. Let me break down how to tell a legit email from a scam email.

Legit Email

• Free of typos or errors
• Personalized – Meaning your name is clearly included in the content.
• From a legit sender with a legit domain in the from email address field – you can find this by simply hovering over the email in your inbox and the from name should appear. Meaning, you don’t even have to open the email to determine if it is from a trusted source.
• Email subject line is descriptive and informative – Does not include what we call “Click Bait”, which you will learn more about below.
• You recognize the sender – The email is from a known and trusted source, verified by the from address field.
• You are expecting the email – The sender is trusted and you were made aware that you would be receiving communications from them via email. You opted in to receiving these emails.

Scam Email

• Typos, errors, and overall strange language/verbiage
• Not personalized – the email content begins with something like, “Dear valued customer”, “Hello, dear”, “Dear sir or madam”, etc.
• From a strange sender – Make sure you recognize the sender before even opening the email. If the from email address looks strange, don’t even bother opening it.
• These will appear/look like legit emails at a glance – however, upon further investigation like finding typos you will find that it is not from a legit sender.
• Email subject lines are alarming or strange – For example you might see something like “Urgent Message from IRS” this is bait to get you to open the email.
• Request for sensitive information – A legit company will never request any personal or sensitive information via email. This includes passwords, usernames, credit card information, etc.
• Email attachments – Normally businesses will direct you to their website to login and view the attachment. If you receive an email urging you to open an attached file it is likely not legit.
• Hyperlinks – With scams the entire email can be one huge hyperlink, meaning if you accidentally click anywhere in the email you will be taken to the spammy URL. Hover over the email, if you did open it. From there you can right click on the body of the email and if the option to open the link in a new page appears this means the entire email is a hyperlink – do not open the link.
• Visible Hyperlinks – If the email contains an actually link for your to click on, hover over the link and you will see the destination URL. This url will show up in the bottom left hand corner of your screen on desktop. Make sure it matches the sender domain and is taking you to an authentic page. If the url looks strange do not click on it.

Most Common Types of Scam Emails

Now that you have more information on how to spot a legit email from a scam, lets review the most common types of scam email you will see: