- 25th Apr '23
By Mathieu Picard- 5 minutes read
Email Phishing: Everything You Need To Know To Protect Yourself From Hackers
Email phishing is a scam that uses email to trick you into giving away personal information. It can be a scary experience, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself from these emails. First of all, you should understand what this danger is.
What is Email Phishing?
Email phishing is a cyber attack that uses email to lure users into revealing their personal information. This is one of the oldest types of cyber attacks hackers use to target businesses and consumers.
Today many businesses rely on various cybersecurity companies to prevent phishing attacks. But if you are using your email, saying, once a week, to contact your professor regarding your thesis topic and discuss how the research is going, then there's no need to hire a company that will protect you from a hacker if you can do it yourself. Moreover, in such a case, this money can be spent more wisely, for example, by using Thesis Writing Services and getting a ready-made academic paper of the highest quality from a professional writer.
How does Email Phishing work?
A common phishing tactic involves sending an email that resembles a legitimate business asking for confidential information or passwords. It may also include scare tactics, threats, and alarmist language.
If you receive an email like this, it's best to call the business directly to verify its authenticity. Legitimate companies will never request that you provide personal information through email. Reliable companies will require your personal information only through a special form if you order something or want to contact them and receive an answer. For instance, a trusted online service dissertationwritings.com mentioned earlier already has a protected order form for secure online transactions.
How to confirm if it's Email Phishing?
An email asking you to verify your bank information or provide sensitive data may be a phishing scam. Usually, a hacker has extensively researched the company before sending the email, so it's not likely to be legitimate.
Another way to tell if an email is phishing is if it asks you to click on a link. Hover over the link with your mouse to see if the link's written text matches what it takes you to.
The most common phishing scams involve email addresses that look like they're from a legitimate company but are spoofed. This means they have changed or added characters to make it look natural.
A phishing email can include misspellings, bad grammar, and other warning signs that it's not from the sender you trust. It may also ask you to do suspicious actions, like pay an invoice or log into a website.
How to protect yourself from being hacked through email?
First and most importantly, don't open suspicious emails. Report them, mark them as junk in your email client, and then delete them from your inbox.
If you still have opened such an email, you should look at it carefully and determine if there are dangerous contents. Let's discover what you should not do after opening a suspicious email.
Don't click on any links or attachments
You should never click on links or attachments when receiving an email unless you are sure it is from a legitimate source. They can lead you to a website that installs malware or steals your personal information.
Cybercriminals design phishing emails to look like they come from companies you trust, but they often include fake web links, phone numbers, and malware attachments.
If the content of the phishing email is threatening or urgent and written in all caps, this is a red flag that it isn't legitimate. Also, look for spelling mistakes or poor grammar.
Don't open any attachments
Many phishing emails try to entice you to open an attachment that will install malware on your device. Scammers often use these files to steal your social security number or financial data.
It's important to know that not all attachments are dangerous. For example, a document you receive from your employer may be acceptable to download. However, you should always read the body of the email before downloading anything.
Some documents require you to enable macros, which is a way of automatically editing the file. If you see a message that says, "Enable Macro," it could be a sign of a scam or phishing attempt.
I've been very careful and didn't get hacked. What should I do next?
Congratulations! Now, one or a couple of hackers are devastated because of your intelligence. But it's not a win yet, because such people won't stop trying to steal information from others or you again.
Report a dangerous email
If you think the email you're receiving is dangerous, report it to your email provider and local law enforcement agencies. This will help protect you from future attacks.
To sum up, you now have a complete description of how to tell if your email is dangerous and what you should do to protect yourself from a cyber attack like email phishing or, in other words, "hack" the hackers. Stay safe and cyber-strong!
Mathieu Picard
CEO, Anyleads, San Francisco
We are the leading marketing automation platform serving more than 100,000 businesses daily. We operate in 3 countries, based in San Francisco, New York, Paris & London.
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