Common Signs of Phishing
Purpose: The purpose of this guide is to give you common signs of a phishing email.
Phishing is an attempt to steal your information and steal money through the means of appearing legitimate and tricking you. Phishing has serious consequences that cost victims a total of $44.2 million in 2021 (https://www.ic3.gov/Media/PDF/AnnualReport/2021_IC3Report.pdf page 23).
Signs of Phishing attempts
Sender: Anyone can change the look of who they are sending an email from to appear it is someone familiar. Make sure you know who sent the email.
Attachment or URL: Most phishing attempts will have some attachment for you to click on or a link to go to. To check where a link goes:
On the PC, hover your mouse over the link without clicking. This will reveal the actual location you are going to go. Need an example? Click here to go to youtube.com. Is this going to take you to youtube.com?
On a mobile phone or tablet, hold down on the URL. With iOS devices, you will see the URL and a preview of what will be loaded. With Android devices, you will be shown the URL it will take you to.
Grammar: Most phishing emails can easily be identified by a lousy sense of grammar, and often, many words are misspelled.
Odd-looking phone numbers: Many places will use international or oddly formatted numbers. Most legitimate companies have 1-800 or 1-866 numbers. If it is something such as 1187635130452 - It is an obvious sign of a scam.
Sense of urgency: Most phishing attempts try to scare individuals into giving them information before they can think everything through. Some examples:
FBI Scare: The email is "coming from" the Director of the FBI, and if you don't pay a fine now, you'll be arrested and placed in prison.
Malware scare: A common tactic is to state the email is coming from a technical support company, sometimes even "Microsoft," and your device was found with malware. For a fee, they can fix your system.
DO NOT FALL FOR THESE SCAMS. DO NOT pay the company's money. If you doubt whether the email is legitimate, get a hold of the actual individual (not by replying to the email, but through other means, such as a phone). You can also forward the email (or take a screenshot and send the screenshot) to support@gprep.com
If you are in doubt, get a hold of the company by going through the company's website and NOT through a link on the email.
The email below is just one of many attempts that have been seen and reported.
