How to avoid, detect, report suspicious emails
NEWS DIGEST–Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers.
A phishing attack happens when someone tries to trick you into sharing personal information online.
Phishing is usually done through email, ads or by sites that look similar to sites that you already use. For example, someone who is phishing might send you an email that looks like it’s from your bank so that you’ll give them information about your bank account.
How to identify Phishing emails
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Phishing emails or sites might ask for:
• Usernames and passwords, including password changes
• National Insurance numbers
• Bank account numbers
• PINs (Personal Identification Numbers)
• Credit card numbers
• Your mother’s maiden name
• Your date of birth
How to avoid phishing attacks
Be careful any time that you get an email from a site asking for personal information. If you get this type of email:
• Don’t click any links or provide personal information until you’ve confirmed that the email is real.
• If the sender has a Gmail or Yahoo address, report the Gmail abuse to Google or Yahoo.
When you get an email that looks suspicious, here are a few things to check for:
• Check that the email address and the sender name match.
• Check whether the email is authenticated.
• Hover over any links before you click on them. If the URL of the link doesn’t match the description of the link, it might be leading you to a phishing site.
• Check the message headers to make sure that the ‘from’ header isn’t showing an incorrect name.
