Phishing scams are currently one of the most common types of cyberattacks existing in the world. These frauds are usually embedded in some form of message that when opened contains information that requires usernames, passwords, and/or other financial information. In recent years, people have become victims of cybercriminals due to various online scams especially phishing, here ways to identify them.
In this guide, you’ll learn what phishing scams are, and how you can protect yourself from them.
1. Use the Best Spam Filters to Block Phishing Emails
The first step in protecting yourself from phishing scams is to prevent these harmful messages from reaching your inbox in the first place. Installing one of the best spam filters can help detect and block phishing emails before they have a chance to trick you. Spam filters work by scanning incoming emails for suspicious content, such as fake domains, phishing links, and malicious attachments.
A high-quality spam filter will also monitor for emails impersonating well-known companies or institutions. This makes it more difficult for phishing emails to bypass your defences, helping you avoid fraudulent attempts from the start.
2. Recognize Common Signs of Phishing
Usually, phishing emails and messages are generally characterized by particularities that would allow the identification of the scam before the actual loss of money. Knowing what to look for will assist you in avoiding a fall for such a trap. Here are some of the most common signs of phishing scams:
Suspicious sender addresses: Most of the phishing emails are sent from related or slightly modified email addresses of real organizations. For instance, instead of the address such as support@amazon. Com, what you may find is support@amaz0n. com.
- Urgency or fear tactics: A phishing attack is often written with words that seek to create the impression of an emergency such as “Please hurry!”, “Your account has been seized!”
- Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes: Even today companies have to go to extents to establish well well-groomed and professional tone. Phishing emails commonly have bad grammar and very overt spelling errors they are likely to be phishing emails.
- Unfamiliar greetings: Some of the rules can include the fact that phishing emails may begin with something such as ‘Dear customer’ rather than directly naming the person receiving the email something that the company knows, which is quite natural.
- Unsolicited attachments or links: If you get an unsolicited email that comes with files or links that you are told to click, from unknown people, beware.
3. Avoid Clicking on Suspicious Links
The most common approach that is used in phishing scams is using links that take you to what looks like a genuine website. These sites are created to obtain your login details or any other financial details. This is because, if a link looks suspicious, hovering the mouse over it will help identify the real website’s destination. Always be careful when this part of the URL looks awful or does not match the website as per the claim it is.
Furthermore, if you get an e-mail from a firm notifying you of an account update or attempting to change information in your account, don’t click on the link in the e-mail instead go to the official website of the firm. This will help in avoiding the wastage of time and money on a fake website by confirming that the one to be used is not a phishing website.
4. Don’t Share Personal Information via Email
This is particularly a common feature that reputable companies will not send emails requesting you to provide details such as passwords, credit card numbers, or social security numbers. If you receive an e-mail that asks you to provide this data, most probably it is a phishing attempt as a rule. Be very careful about the dissemination of information regarding yourself particularly through the mail and do not fall prey to bogus mail scams by verifying such mail requests by contacting the company through other reliable means.
5. Enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is the extra layer of security that increases the protection of your accounts even if the culprit got your username and password through phishing schemes. That means, if 2FA is enabled, you will be required to enter a second factor of identification depending on the selected method, the options include a text Message Code or an Authentication App notification. This makes it difficult even for hackers to break into the account because they would be required to do a second form of verification before they can get access.
