ANYONE who uses email needs to look out for red flags that you’re being targeted by scammers.
A cyber-expert has told The U.S. Sun that there are some clear signs you’re about to become a victim.
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Email scams are increasingly sophisticated, but they’re easy enough to spot when you know how to identify them.
Often these scams are designed to steal your money – or get enough of your private info to defraud you.
We spoke to Dr Klaus Schenk, vice president of security at Verimatrix, who revealed three red flags that you need to watch out for.
The first involves taking a close look at who the email is coming from – even on trusted apps like Google Gmail or Microsoft Outlook.
“The email claims to be from a legitimate business, but the email address domain name is not actually from the business,” Dr Schenk explained.
“Often, the domain name is a close proxy, but not a valid email address associated with the business.”
You’ll need to look out for spelling mistakes, strange characters, or curious endings to the email address.
These are all signs that you may not be speaking with who you think you are.
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The second red flag is when you spot something suspicious with a link in the email.
“The body of the email message contains an invalid or fraudulent hyperlink,” Dr Schenk warned.
“If you hover your cursor over the link, the website address that pops up may not match the one displayed in the email.”
Scammers will often try to send you to fraudulent signs.
These websites may pose as a legitimate organization to steal your money or info.
Or the link may install dangerous malware on your device that can spy on you or use your machine for criminal purposes.
The third and final sign you must look out for is when an email seems to be suspiciously tempting – or makes outlandish claims.
“The email body copy contains an overly attractive click incentive, such as a monetary bonus or a delivery package, that seems too good to be true,” Dr Schenk advised.
“Additionally, be wary of any email that contains non-referenced ‘facts’ in the body copy.”
If you work on keeping an eye out for these three warning signs, you could avoid plenty of dangerous email scams.
