Spot email scams with these quick tips

WARNING, there is a scam lurking about.  Well in reality there are many.  But in this alert from our fellow LTA member, Christian at Northstar IT, he wants to help educate you with some basic skills to try and spot a dodgy email which could be there to scam you out of personal information, money or passwords.

Many legitimate companies like PayPal will send you advice to be more aware about scams but even this emails can get ‘hijacked’.  So here are some general tips about how to be more email savvy to try and spot the more common email scams at the very least.

  • Most of the time, genuine emails will come to you addressed to you personally or have a reference that will mean something to you, like an account number.  If it says, “dear customer”, or something generic like that, this is a BIG warning sign.  Just delete the email.
  • If the email has an older logo on it, from what you’re familiar with that is also a warning sign, don’t click on any links!
  • If there is a link in it, that doesn’t look normal, like https://paypal.sdfghjkl.ru as an example, then that is also a BIG red flag!
  • Most commercial companies won’t send you an email with an attachment unless you are expecting it.  So be aware.
  • Never trust someone you don’t know promising money whether it’s to give to you or promise returns that are sky high.  In the good words of my mother “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is”.
  • If you play a lottery of one kind of another, make sure you login through you own account or app to verify a win, don’t just click on a link in an unfamiliar email.
  • NEVER, EVER reply to an email with personal information on it such as banking details or passwords.  In fact, you should never share passwords with anyone.
HMRC SCAM email

All of these are good practices to follow.  But if you are in doubt out the legitimacy of an email, always get a second opinion.  A fresh pair of eyes can often spot something you may miss.  If in doubt seek the services of an IT professional.  We’re there to guard your secrets, so the bad guys don’t get them!

Please follow our YouTube channel which has lots of short videos to help you.

PLEASE CLICK THIS HYPERLINK https://www.youtube.com/c/northstarit

Here is the link to a video which covers this very subject with some useful tips can be found here: https://www.northstarit.co.uk/e-mail/some-emails-are-just-dodgy-part-2-it-support-episode-16/

You can find a selection of videos covering emails here: https://www.northstarit.co.uk/category/e-mail/

If you would like to know more about how we can help you protect your data, feel free to get in touch via our website.  We’re local to you and we’d be delighted to talk to you.

Bye for now, Christian

Northstar IT Lancing red alert
Red ALERT from Northstar IT
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