How To Spot Phishing Emails

What's Phishing?

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Phishing emails are becoming more common and more sophisticated. You might have some phishing emails in your inbox right now and you may not be able to tell.

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Phishing is the term used to describe how cybercriminals attempt to lure in victims to access their malicious activity. The most common form of phishing is email phishing where cybercriminals will send a malicious email that appears legit but secretly has suspicious links attached.

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Big companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Paypal, and many others are used as a front to capture an individual's attention as they are super common platforms. Once an individual has clicked the malicious link, they may be taken to a false website that asks for their information or they could have allowed adware and malware onto their device. Another thing it may do is let a cybercriminal know that you have an active email address and they may add you to a list to send more future scams to.

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What Can I Do To Stop Receiving Phishing Emails?

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While it is impossible to prevent any and all phishing emails from entering your inbox, there are a few things you can do to prevent falling for a phishing scam. The first thing you can do is educate yourself on how to spot suspicious phishing emails.

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Here are 5 things to look out for in suspicious emails:  

1. Spelling and grammar errors

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2. Requests personal information, or takes you to a login page

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3. Has high urgency message or threats

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4. Fake web links or addresses

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5. Too good to be true

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Another thing you can do to prevent falling for phishing attacks, is having proper email security in place. Cyber Unit offers a great email security plan which filters through all of your incoming emails to ensure there is no malicious attachments involved.

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Our team ensures that anything suspicious is flagged immediately so when you receive the suspicious email there is a warning notification stating that this email may have malicious intent. Many of our clients have received potential phishing email scams, but with our services, they were able to prevent engagement with the malicious email and they were able to avoid a potential breach.