Have you been the victim of online scammers and cybercriminals?
Cybercrime is a big deal in the age of mass internet use, and people are always coming up with new and unique ways to scam their victims out of money and information.
But how do they do it? There are plenty of popular scamming methods. One of the most common ones that an unfortunate number of people fall for is phishing. Are you familiar with it? Have you encountered it yourself?
We want to help you learn about phishing and the signs of a phishing email so you can protect yourself, your business, your employees, and your customers from dangerous criminals. Keep reading for everything that you need to know.
Phishing emails are an
attempt by cybercriminals to get sensitive information from the recipient through fraudulent means. Some phishing emails also include links to malware, though this isn't always the case. It's one of the easiest scams that a criminal can do. While phishing is usually in email form, some scammers have moved on to phone scams.
Phishing emails can target individuals or businesses. A business targeted by phishing emails can have its personal information, employee information, and customer information infiltrated.
Often when there's an information breach, customers are no longer interested in trusting that business. This is one of the reasons that protecting your business against phishing is so important. But how do you know when you're being phished?
A phishing email wants your attention immediately. Phishers want to make you open the email before you realize that it's a scam. They want to convey a sense of urgency.
Sometimes they'll include your name. Others, they'll have something intriguing or some "must-know" information that they promise to include inside. Sometimes they'll promise free items or a prize in the first sentence!
This is to lure unsuspecting people to whatever link or request that they have inside. It's best to ignore the hook and keep in mind that if they want your attention that badly, there's probably a reason.
Have you gotten an email that you didn't expect with some sort of file attached? This is a red flag. If you weren't anticipating an email from that person with a file, don't click it.
This is true whether the email is definitely from the right email account, if it's from a known Facebook page, or if the email account is unknown to you. There are websites available that can help you determine if a
link is safe, but files should be ignored. If you're worried that it's important, email or message the person or company through the email address you're familiar with.
