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6 Tips for Spotting Phishing Emails

Phishing is referred to as the fraudulent practice of trying to obtain the sensitive information from people such as credit card numbers or passwords by presenting themselves as a reputable entity or person. Usually, these fraudsters send emails, personal messages or use other forms of communication channels to fool the people.

If you are wondering that if these fraudsters masquerade themselves as the representatives of the reputable companies, then how one can identify that whether the email received by them is a genuine email or a phishing mail, then, here’s the solution to your problem.

Here we are listing the top 6 tips to identify a phishing email and protect yourself from getting deceived.

Urgency Based Language

The phishing emails often create a fake sense of urgency and it appears that it is very urgent to respond to the email with the required information.

Usually, these show that the recipient’s account will be suspended or has been suspended due to the “security concerns” and thus, an urgent action is required to restore the account.

If you receive such an email, stop and think for a while and contact your bank or any other financial institution on whose behalf the email has been sent.

Strange Links

Most of the phishing emails contain strange links and they prompt the users to click on the link. Before clicking on the link, ensure that it takes you to an official website.

The genuine links contain the websites while these strange links don’t have a specific name in their URL and have alphanumeric as well as special characters.

The Offers Presented In the Phishing Mails Are Too Good To Be True

If the mail claims that you have won millions of dollars in the prize or you have been selected for a special prize, then delete the email immediately.

One of the phishing facts is that these emails often lure the people with lucrative offers and trick the users to provide sensitive information.

Requesting Personal Information

One of the most common and biggest warning signs of the phishing emails is that they request the personal information such as your name, street address, bank account details or PayPal account details.

The cardinal reason for asking this information is that the hackers want to access your bank or other accounts.

Never ever provide any personal information to anyone.

Generic Greetings

Most of the phishing emails are not aware of your name and thus, don’t refer the recipients by their name. Usually, these have generic greetings like “Dear Valued Member”.

If you find any such mail, then try to find out more about the email instead of replying instantly to it.

To protect yourself from phishing attacks, one needs to stay aware and take the right steps if any such email is encountered. The anti-phishing software is also available in the market these days, and you can deploy one of this software to keep your data and information protected.

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