Ever gotten an email from your bank or other official sender warning you that something bad is about to happen to your account? I get a few every month. It can be unnerving and raise the adrenaline. It can also cause you to rush through the next steps (which is exactly what the bad guys are counting on). Learning how to detect spam from real email can save you from the pains of malware, viruses, ransomware, identity theft, etc. So, how do you know if the email is real or spam?
As an example, here is an email I recently received:
Kind of a scary email, especially for a law firm. But there are at least two key giveaways that this email is spam.
First, look at who actually sent this email. It says Team Notification but it really came from Fran.loriente@hotmail.com. So probably not Outlook. (Don't send an email to Fran.)
By the way, this is not obvious if you are looking at this email on a mobile device:
So, you may need to log into your actual email to confirm or take additional steps to see the emaila address of the person who sent it. This process will vary by device.
Second, some of the "Os" are really "0s" as in the number zero.
This exchanging numbers for letters is pretty common in spam email.
Here is a final shot containing all of the issues discussed above.
If in doubt, if you get the email from a bank or other institution, call the number on the back of your card or look up the number, call the company, and confirm. Never click on any links until you are 100% sure that it is safe.
Stay safe!
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