Email Phishing - What is it and How to Avoid It

Many people fall victim to email phishing scams daily. It's important to learn about common scams that cybercriminals use to gain personal information to keep yourself safe. When you use the Internet, there are plenty of ways cybercriminals can gain your personal information.

Please continue reading to learn everything you need about email phishing and how to avoid it. Keeping yourself informed is the first step to protecting yourself.

What is Email Phishing?

Email phishing is a way for cybercriminals to gain your personal information, including but not limited to ID cards, credit cards, and addresses. Email phishing scams work when cybercriminals pretend to be a larger organisation. For example, they may pose as Google and send you a link to recover information, only for it to become a scam.

When you click these links, they gain access to your Google account or other account information. It would be best if you were careful which links you Click to avoid these cyber-attacks.

How To Identify Phishing Emails

Phishing attacks are devastating, so you must learn how to identify them. Follow these tips to identify and avoid phishing emails that you receive.

Public Domains

If the email comes from the public domain, it's likely someone impersonating the larger company. Secure links occur on private domains when sent by companies to your email address. Be cautious about any links you click from your email.

Misspellings

the most common way to detect phishing scams is to look for any misspellings. These misspellings can occur throughout the email or in the email name. For example, a cybercriminal impersonating Google could type out the company’s name as “gogle”. It's such a slight misspelling that you may have trouble noticing it at first.

New Email Sender

It could be a scam if you've never received emails from this sender. You can look through any previous emails you've received from the sender by searching through your email. If you've never received any email from the sender, you should avoid clicking any links to keep yourself safe.

Odd Tone

You should read the email and detect any odd tones. For example, if they use overused greetings, it could be someone impersonating the company. This is especially true if they're impersonating a local company instead of a larger company. Local companies typically customise their emails for their senders to look authentic.

How Scammers Use Your Email

There are several reasons why scammers want to hack your email address or other accounts. They can gain your personal or banking information and steal money from you. They can also access customer records if you are a business and steal money from your customers. Anyone who hacks your email through a phishing scam uses your email for malicious purposes.

Avoid Getting Phished

It would be best if you were proactive about the emails you've received to avoid getting phished. Never click links from any unreliable sources so that you can protect your information. If you need clarification on the source of an email link, you should call the company to ask if they sent you an email. A real person can tell you whether or not the email links you receive are safe.

Contacting the company your phishing emails pretend to be is also a great way to protect others. This way, the company can release a statement about the phishing emails to protect other customers who may be victims of this scam.

Teach Your Team About Phishing

If you own a business, you must keep yourself and your customers safe by teaching employees about these scams. You want your employees to refrain from clicking on unreliable email links and compromising business and customer personal info.

Final Thoughts

Phishing scams are one of the most common ways cybercriminals gain personal information. They pose as a larger company and send you a link that you're supposed to click on to gain access to your account. Be careful about any links you click on when using the Internet to ensure you don't fall for one of these scams.