Fake email remains one of the most popular way to distribute viruses or obtain users private and sensitive information. However, it is really simple to tell the difference between legitimate and dangerous emails if you know some key indicators, so it is possible to avoid a lot of cyber security problems and save both your time and money this way.
In this article we will talk about most important points in discerning fake emails from legitimate ones thus proceed reading if you want to make your computer and personal information more secure.
Where does it come from
Probably the most important fact in this case is to be able to decide if the sender can be trusted or not. So the first thing you do when checking your inbox is not opening emails, but making sure that you know the sender and you can trust him. Even though spammers tend to create names similar to someone you know or a company you can trust, it can be easily recognised if you look close enough. The point here is – do not open the letter if you are not 100 percent sure the sender is trustworthy.
Tone of the email
If you receive an email from an official business or public organisation, can it be written with multiple grammar errors or familiar/ not proper tone of speech? It’s doubtful, so you can always take a closer look at small details like this. In case the letter is full of grammar errors and the style it is written in just does not look inherent for this kinds of letters, you should not trust it.
Be extremely careful about links
One of the most obvious way to tell if an email is not reliable – suspicious links inside of it. Whether cyber criminals are trying to infect your computer with some kind of malware or they are just phishing for your personal information, 9 out of 10 times this kind of email will have a link on it. It’s enough only to click on that kind of link and your computer can get infected the same second. The easiest way to check if the link is safe is to hover over it with a mouse – this way you will see the actual URL you will be taken to. Now just google the link and make sure it is safe to use. Otherwise we do not recommend opening any links.
Be sure if the information is really needed
When phishing for personal information, cyber criminals tend to pretend they are some kind of social media website or a bank and simply request users to send certain information to them. However, you can always think to yourself if the company like Facebook or Google would be asking you to provide sensitive data via email? Usually no sensitive data is transferred through emails, therefore it can be a good indicator that the email is malicious. You should immediately delete and report this kind of email.
