Justfindit.se Magazine

Protection against phishing

Protection against phishing. Can simple spelling errors and grammatical mistakes help us understanding that something is wrong?

In this magazine we have published articles about negative behaviors on Internet. They were about Phishing and Spoofing and now we are going back to it by writing about a similar theme. We simply want to contribute by sharing a helpful information about how to avoid the problems.

Do you sometimes receive a suspicious emails that seems to be familiar? Do you somehow recognize the content in that kind of emails? That could be a so called phishing email and such an email can look like it is sent by a company where you have bought some services. It is often hard to recognize because the fraudulent sender makes it look like the original one.

Usually, these emails create a sense of urgency and therefore you can experience that they are pressuring you to take immediate action. They may threat you if you do not act quickly. For example they can write that your services will be suspended if you do not pay. Also, they can ask for your account details or to log in using their malicious link or a button.

What can you do if you get an email that maybe attracts your attention by some reasons?

You can check the sender's email address instead of relying on the displayed name. The sender's address often reveals that it is a fraudulent email. It often contains numbers, maybe some misspellings or doesn't end like the email address of the real company.

Other important details

Be careful if sensitive information, like passwords, credit card numbers or account details is requested. If you receive an email asking you to provide that kind of information, please be careful. It is probably best to delete it or to report it to the company mentioned in the message.

Avoid clicking on any links or buttons in suspicious emails. Phishers often include links that lead to fake login pages. Hover over a link to see the actual destination before clicking. Do not click on the link.
You should also avoid downloading attachments from unknown sources because they might contain malware and your computer can be infected.

Phishing emails can contain spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. They can also look like a bad translation from or to English or another language. The format of a phishing email can be a poor copy of what a real company uses. Often some small details are missing in the company logo, or a different colors are used.

In phishing emails you can normally see greetings like "Dear Customer" instead of addressing you by name. It is probably so because they might not have your specific details.

If you notice information like invoice number or order number in this kind of emails you should check if it actually is something connected to the service you pay for. The best way of doing that is to log in to your online portal or contact the support of your services.

Hopefully we have succeeded with making your more familiar with this kind of Internet and phishing problems.