What Should I Do If I Receive An Email That Seems Too Good To Be True?

You have won a lottery of Rs 7,00,00,000”. Sounds too good to be true? Yes, it is! However, when such subject lines appear in our email inboxes, we sometimes trust them and get trapped in scams. It’s called an email phishing attack! Phishing accounts are one of the most common forms of cybercrime. Cybercriminals send an estimated 3.4 billion phishing emails daily, impersonating trusted senders, totalling over a trillion annually. This is over a trillion phishing emails per year. Using them, the scammers attempt to dupe you into opening dangerous links or attachments that can potentially steal your data, infect your device with malware, or do other harm.

What Is Email Phishing?

An email phishing attack is a deceptive technique that makes you click on a malicious link, but it’s really hard to detect. One common feature of such emails is that they always appear to come from sources like banks, credit card companies, or even familiar friends. Every possible text may be written to lure you into giving out your personal information! However, beware and try to safeguard yourself from such cyber attacks.

Red Flags To Watch Out For?

• Threats or urgency: Phishing emails frequently use scare tactics or false information to get you to respond immediately, as in saying your account is in danger.
• Unusual sender address: Even if the email seems to be from a reputable source, check the sender’s email address for typos or strange domains.
• Grammatical mistakes: Phishing emails frequently have poor writing quality and may include typos, grammatical problems, or strange wording.
• Requests for private information: Reputable businesses will not send emails requesting private information. You should avoid emails requesting your credit card information, Social Security number, or login credentials.

If you suspect a phishing email, don’t click on anything and report it to your email provider. By staying vigilant and recognising these red flags, one can effectively protect themselves from email phishing scams.

Techniques To Detect Email Phishing.

Email phishing attacks continue to be a prevalent threat, so having techniques to detect them is crucial. Here are some key methods:

• Email Analysis: Scrutinise email elements like sender address, urgency in the message, spelling errors, and inconsistencies. Phishing emails often have sender addresses with typos or strange domains, create urgency to pressure quick actions, and contain grammatical errors.
• URL Filtering: Email security solutions examine URLs in emails for suspicious characteristics. It includes identifying known malicious URLs, lookalike URLs with slight misspellings mimicking real sites, and URLs with suspicious structures.
• AI and Machine Learning: AI and machine learning models analyse email content and linked websites to identify patterns associated with phishing attempts. These models can detect red flags like urgency in the text, mismatched sender and email content, and attempts to steal login credentials.
• Behaviour-Based Analysis: This monitors user behaviour to identify anomalies that might indicate a phishing attempt. For example- clicking a link received in an email from an unknown sender and entering login credentials on a website would raise a red flag.
• Collaboration and Threat Intelligence: Sharing information about phishing threats among organisations and security vendors helps create a collective defence. This allows for faster identification of new phishing campaigns and the sharing of knowledge to better protect users.

By combining these techniques, email security systems can detect and block phishing attempts, safeguarding users from falling victim to these scams.

Here’s what you should do if you receive an email that seems too good to be true:

1. Don’t click on anything. It includes links, attachments, or even images in the email. Clicking on these elements can either download malware to your device or redirect to a fake website designed to steal your information.
2. Be wary of urgency. Phishing emails often induce a sense of urgency to prompt you to act quickly without considering the consequences. They might threaten to close your account, suspend your service, or take other negative actions if you don’t respond immediately.
3. Check the sender’s address. Phishing emails often come from addresses that look legitimate, but on closer inspection, there might be a misspelling or a strange domain name. For example, the email might appear from “bankofindia.com,” but the sender’s address might be “bankofIndia.in.”
4. Look for typos and grammatical errors. Phishing emails must be better written and may contain typos, grammatical errors, or awkward phrasing.
5. Don’t reply to the email. Replying to a phishing email confirms that your email address is active and can encourage scammers to send you more emails.
6. Report the email. Most email providers have a way to report phishing emails, which helps them identify and block future attempts.
7. Be careful about what information you share online. Scammers can use information you share online, such as on social media, to make their phishing emails more believable. Be mindful of what information you make publicly available.
8. Educate yourself about phishing scams: The more you know about phishing scams, the better it will help you. There are many resources available online that can teach you about how to identify and avoid phishing emails.

Bottom Line

Avail protection from phishing scams and ensure the safety of your personal information. If you need clarification on whether an email is legitimate, it’s always best to err on caution and delete it.