How to tell the difference between real and fake emails
According to the latest Kaspersky Lab statistics, around 60 per cent of emails sent worldwide are spam. The vast majority of these spam emails are created to scam you of your hard-earned money. So Drew explains how to spot a fake email.
What to look for?
Scammers are becoming more cunning than ever before with how they create scams and the words that they use in those emails. While emails from the prince of Nigeria asking you to help transfer some money in exchange for a percentage for your troubles have fallen off significantly, local and online service scams are rising.
Anyone using an email address ending with .au is being targeted at a more specific level than someone using a .com email address. This is because the scammer knows your email address relates to a person living in Australia.
Be on the lookout for emails from Telecommunication companies (Optus/Telstra etc), banking institutions (Westpac, Commonwealth Bank etc), online payment services (Paypal, Western Union), mail companies (Fed EX or Aus Post) and the Australian Tax Office (ATO).
Before opening an attachment or clicking through to a website, be sure that you are expecting an email, including the information, from the company. The trick I find most useful in determining whether an email is a scam is to scroll my mouse over the linked information in the email. By doing this, a display of the website url you’d be taken to will be shown. This will allow you to make an educated decision (if the link is going to www.telstra.com.au then you know it is a real email).
Another trick is to also check the email address from which you received the email. If it looks dodgy or untypical of that organisation, it’s most likely unsafe.
As with anything in life, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it generally is. Never click a link that you aren’t expecting.
Related articles:
Email in real life
Email etiquette
How to set up email on Apple devices
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