Over the last several decades, a kind of identity theft where hackers steal personal information like credit card data and passwords via emails has been steadily rising. 

As it is commonly known, phishing is a scam proliferating at an alarming rate, with detection becoming harder by the day.  There have been growing concerns about such attacks happening every day, and mostly those attacks end up succeeding.

More than $57 million is lost to phishing crimes in a single year, as revealed by the FBI in a 2019 internet crime report.

These attacks are either directed to people or organizations, with some more advanced attacks in certain instances. Additionally, the tactics in play keep on changing. However, there are obvious red flags that can assist you in identifying a phishing email.

Phishing attacks are a global threat to data security. For example, Kaspersky Labs, a cybersecurity firm, claims to have prevented nearly 2 million bank account attacks out of 800 billion occurrences in 2015.

It is empirical to beware of what you can do to guard yourself and spot phishing efforts way in advance. The following guidelines will assist you in protecting yourself against phishing emails:

How to Spot a Phishing Email

The first step is to identify a phishing email; this involves pinpointing the uncommon and inconsistency. Most individuals find it challenging to determine what a phishing attempt is and what a real email is. However, taking a close look at an email sent to verify its origin and motive can go a long way to protecting yourself against phishing.

Phishing emails are made to look legitimate. However, there are a few aspects that you can consider to correctly weed out a phishing email.

First, they can have generic greetings that don’t address you with your name, similar to “Dear Customer.” Second, unnecessary email address verification with pointless urgency. Other red flags will include poor graphics and grammar, spelling mistakes, and suspicious links or attachments.

Some scammers go to the extent of setting up websites similar to an existing popular company/brand. Nevertheless, some of them are significantly substandard from the genuine sites hence easily noticeable.

The 3 Magical Tips for Identified Phishing Emails

Sometimes phishing emails are filtered into spam. If this does not happen, the following approaches will help get rid of them.

·         Get rid of the email before opening it: You can delete or report a phishing email before opening it. Viruses primarily activate on opening a link or an attachment within the email.

·         Block recipient yourself: You can manually block an email sender by adding them to the block list. This step is a precautionary measure, especially when you share an email address with someone else. Additionally, it prevents other users from opening this malicious email inadvertently.

·         Invest in online security software: You can also monitor your email box with robust anti-malware applications; this ensures your mailbox remains clean.

All in all, instantly blocking or deleting suspicious emails is the surefire way to handle potential phishing attacks. Nevertheless, additional measures could put you in a better place to prevent these attacks.

How to Prevent a Phishing Scam

While most of these phishing attempts are easy to recognize, some of them are pretty hard to notice. Your email provider may automatically filter some of them out. However, the deceptive nature of these attacks may make it difficult for most individuals to flag them.

Conversely, cybercriminals constantly change their tactics, making the attacks more complex with time. Below are some of the tips you can use to avoid falling for these scams.

1.    Be Careful with Sensitive Information

You can reduce your odds of becoming a victim of phishing by being intelligent and practical. Carefully checking emails while browsing online prevents you from clicking on unauthentic links. When in doubt, you can confirm the link by checking it on your browser URL.

Additionally, you can be more vigilant about emails that ask for your private information. You can also remove your sensitive personal information from the internet. It helps prevent scammers from accessing your personal number, which they can use to impersonate an authority or friend.

2.    Be wary of shortened and embedded links

Sometimes scammers conceal spammy links within content to dupe people into clicking them. Therefore, you should be particularly aware of shortened links, as this could direct you to fake sites. To quickly verify a site, you can hover your computer cursor over the weblink to ensure it’s a link you’d expect on such an email. Scammers use these fake sites to steal your confidential information.

In some instances, you may receive original email messages embedded with URLs. You should never click such links as they could be instilled with bad cookies. In such cases verifying the landing page of the link is vital. You can start by reviewing the contact policy of the site or even checking the link on your browser.  

3.    Watch Out For Suspicious Emails

It is almost straightforward for anyone to identify a phishing email, as most of them are always suspicious. You can look out for poor grammar and unnecessary punctuation, and capitalization of words. The scammers do this deliberately to improve responses, eliminate intelligent receivers, and move past the spam filters.

4.    Use Secure Sites

Ensure that you always visit secure websites while browsing the internet. A secure site is a bare minimum if you have to share private credentials like credit cards and passwords. You can always check if a website is secure by looking for the lock icon next to the “HTTPS://” in the URL.

Additionally, avoid using public wifi when submitting information you deem sensitive such as passwords. It is advisable to use personal internet when accessing banking or shopping sites.  You can protect yourself further by purchasing third-party security software to protect yourself from malware. 

Conclusion

Essentially, spotting a scam should be pretty easy given the nature of these activities. You can also report phishing emails to your email providers. Before clicking or opening emails, it is vital to try and verify their source for credibility. Since scam tactics keep changing, constantly updating yourself on the latest safety precautions is a good way to stay ahead.