We have all received them…official looking emails from banks, major companies, even government agencies. But wait, are they REALLY coming from the bank, company or agency? How can you know?
I’ve put together a few tips that will help you to decide whether or not to believe what you are seeing.
First of all, no bank is EVER going to ask you to click a link in the email to log in. Ever. Repeat after me, no bank is EVER going to ask you to click on a link in an email to login. If the reason seems to be compelling and you really want to throw caution to the wind and you do click on the link and provide login credentials you can probably kiss your money goodbye.
Better to actually open a browser and login the way that you normally do and then search for the offer the email told you about! Or better, yet, call the bank and ask if they sent you the email!
The same goes for emails from the “IRS”, “FBI” etc. If they truly want you they will send you a letter in the mail, or an agent will show up at your doorstep!
Next, since a lot of these email scammers are based in foreign countries, they may not have a tight command of the language. Look for misspellings or odd sentence structure. These are often dead giveaways that you are looking at a scam.
If you get an email from a friend telling you that they are in dire straits and need you to purchase gift cards for them and then click a link, don’t do it! Pick up the phone and call your friend even if the email says that they lost their phone!
Used some common sense. Investigate the sender’s email address by hovering your mouse pointer over the sender’s name. Return addresses can be spoofed to show something other than the actual return address! So if in doubt, perform this check.
If the address seems legit, but the email seems to be shady, pick up the phone and call. Not to any phone numbers in the email, but to phone numbers in your address book or on the company or agency website.
These scammers send out hundreds of thousands of these emails in hopes that someone will fall victim. The reason why we keep seeing these sorts of things is because it works. Enough people fall victim to these scams that it makes it worthwhile for them to keep on doing it!
Finally, if you even suspect something may be shady, either mark it as spam or delete it altogether. If it was a legit email, they will find another way to reach you.
A little skepticism will go a long way to keeping you safe from email scams!
