ASSOCIATIONINSIGHT
Portable Sanitation Association International News
BIWEEKLY EDITION AUGUST 19, 2020
Page 8
How to Detect a Phishing Email
In an age where we rely more on more on email messages to communicate important information, it is increasingly
difficult to discern different types of emails now that the volume of messages is so high. Junk email is perhaps the
most annoying, but phishing emails can upend your business for days, weeks, months, or years. Below are clues
that your email might be dangerous from vadesecure.com.
1. Suspicious sender. Cybercriminals use various spoofing
techniques to trick users into believing an email is
legitimate. Check the domain closely for look-alike
domains. Maybe instead of "amazon.com" it is "amazon.
co." Be cautious when reading email on your mobile
device, as only the display name may be visible even if
the email is bogus.
2. Subject line and tone. Enticing, urgent, or threatening
language is commonly used to encourage the recipient
to take immediate action. Trying to make the reader feel
curious, greedy, or scared is a common tactic among
phishing schemes.
3. Greeting. Phishers often send out mass emails to gather
information, so they use generic greetings. But more
sophisticated phishers personalize their emails with
information such as names, email addresses, and even
breached passwords.
4. Errors. Read the email carefully. Grammatical errors are
an obvious red flag, but sophisticated hackers do not
make glaring errors. Instead, there may be more subtle
mistakes, such as minor spacing issues or use of symbols
instead of words. In some cases, there will be no errors.
5. Links. Before clicking, hover over the link to see the
URL of where the link actually leads, and beware of link
shorteners, such as Bitly or TinyURL. Keep in mind that
phishing emails can include clean URLs in addition to the
phishing URL to trick users and email filters. A common
format is "http:/ ignorethis.IMPORTANT_URLcom/
doesn'tmatter" which in practice would be "prizes.
amazon_com.com/whatever" or "checkmybalance.
wellsfargo-com.com."
6. Attachments. Be wary of emails that include
attachments. Phishing emails may include a link in an
attachment, rather than the body of the email, to avoid
detection by an email filter.
7. Images. Cybercriminals can easily replicate brand logos,
images, and badges in emails and web pages that are
indistinguishable from the real thing. Consider all the above factors as you decide whether to click.
Need more help? There is a free service where you can check out suspicious links before you open them. v
