Danger In Your Email: What You Need To Be Concerned About
A huge amout of email coming to us these days are not invited, and often worse – dangerous. We all have to be careful with our incoming email. If not, there is a good chance we are going to interact with some things we will regret. And just because we receive an email from a previously known sender, it does not guarantee that this next one is secure. To support everyone’s safety, here are several examples of things to be skeptical of and handle with care:
- Email messages that are just too good to be true, likely are … to good to be true. Be skeptical!
- Email attachments; are we certain we can trust the sender of the attachment? Did they say they were sending it?
- Email messages that present poor grammar, even common spelling mistakes is something to be on the look out for!
- Strange email greetings or lead-in; the sender may not be familiar with local speak and they are demonstrating it!
- Email elements, for instance is the email address legitimate, and have we troubleshot all links or domains?
- Request email for login info, payment information or anything personally sensitive is just not normal!
Be Skeptical, Assume There is Danger In Your Email
Going further, be sure to prioritize security, safety and be very skeptical. For instance, what follows are things to be fully aware of:
- Do not click links embedded in an email. Even if the URL is visible, it can be set up to link somewhere else. Right-click the link, then copy it to a safe place and review it. Simple. And if that link is even the least bit strange, do not open it up in a browser.
- Never open an email attachment unless you can first verify the sender’s reason for attaching it. Especially, do open if the attachment was never expected in the 1st place.
- Do not follow any website login links in an email, maybe to view something or to download a document. Better to login to accounts on our own, rather then click the link in any email. Safe companies, will not send login links so why is this email-er?
- Be concerned about all email messages, but if there is anything even subtly strange – STOP! Consider, why would they email such a comment or request. One can always call the sender, so doit and be certain.
- Do not trust an email that requests ACH information, or any type of financial transaction.
- Do not try to download or install software from an email before carefully investigating it.
We must all proceed as if hackers are several steps ahead. Microsoft, for instance, is constantly updating its own spam/phishing counter-measures. And so, even an apparent Microsoft e-mail can be hackers or phishing. Beware!
