I’m sure you’re sick of hearing me talk about e-mail, and specifically, e-mail security, but get ready because here comes another Blog post dedicated to it. As scams become more and more prevalent (and creative), it feels like a good time to bring it up once again. When my own wife can potentially fall victim to these cretins, I’ve obviously not done my job well enough. So, today, we bring you all of the e-mail “tricks of the trade” to ensure that your inbox is managed in the best and safest way possible.
Today’s post will be a review for many of you, but for my new readers, this is an important topic, and it just makes sense to put all of these tips in one easy-to-find place. And, who among us doesn’t need a refresher? In any event, let’s get down to business. Anyone who has ever used e-mail is familiar with the “From” field in their inbox. In this column, you can see the name of the person who has sent you an e-mail. Sometimes, though, things aren’t as they appear, and a scammer will send an e-mail pretending to be another individual or a business. Before opening an e-mail, place the mouse directly over the sender’s name (hover the mouse), but don’t click on it. The actual e-mail address that sent you the message will be displayed. If you receive an e-mail providing you with UPS tracking, it might be legitimate, or it could be from jsmith@ups.yahoo.com. A company as large as UPS would send an e-mail with an address ending in ups.com and not as I listed above. The example I gave would almost certainly be a phishing e-mail – an e-mail trying to get you to click on a link which would then make your personal information vulnerable. If you don’t feel that the address matches the sender’s name, delete the e-mail before you open it. By the way, if you do open an e-mail, you can still hover over the sender’s name to display the address. Clicking words like “details”, “more details”, or clicking (or tapping) on arrows will also reveal this information.
Things get a little more tricky when e-mails come from someone you know. If you receive an e-mail from your best friend, and the hover trick shows that their e-mail address is legit, you may then open the e-mail. Sometimes, the e-mail won’t contain a subject, and the entire body of the message will consist of a clickable link. Never click this link! All kinds of hell and brimstone can be unleashed on you and your computer. Simply delete the e-mail, and let your friend know what happened. They’ll probably want to change the password associated with their e-mail account just to be safe. The same goes for you as well. If you ever receive an e-mail from yourself that you know you didn’t send and just contains a link, change your password. Also, suggest to your friends and family to always send e-mails with a subject. That’s an easy way to identify if the e-mail is from the actual sender. It’s not totally fail-safe, but is helpful. We regularly configure the spam settings for businesses to reject e-mails that don’t include subjects, so it’s a good habit to get yourself into.
Remember how I mentioned in the introductory paragraph how my wife almost fell victim as well? She forwarded me an e-mail last week that came from the pastor of our church. The subject came from a Gmail account containing his name, and the subject of the e-mail was “ONE IN CHRIST”. He asked her to e-mail him back as quickly as possible, and signed off with “Blessings”. It had all the criteria to seem legitimate. She forwarded his message, and said that things seemed off to her. Our church is one of my clients, so I’ve set up the pastor’s cell phone for him. At the end of the message to my wife, the signature said “Sent from my iPhone”. I know for a fact that he doesn’t have an iPhone, so that was an immediate red flag. But, I also knew that he was given a Gmail address when he purchased a new Google Pixel phone. I didn’t know what the Gmail address was since he never uses it. Anyway, she thought that the e-mail wasn’t written “in his voice”, so she was convinced it wasn’t actually from him. She did respond to the e-mail, however, before I told her not to (women!), and the response asked her to go to the store and purchase an iTunes gift card for him to give to a friend with cancer and that he would pay her back. The e-mail contained very poor grammar and misspellings, neither of which would fly with the pastor! Her gut was correct – it was a scam. She checked with the pastor, and he confirmed. Often your best protection is your own good sense. The “BS Detector” was strong with this one, but it shows just how careful you have to be.
E-mail is everywhere, and though it isn’t something to be afraid of, it is important to keep your eyes open and not let yourself become a victim. Use the same “street smarts” that you do on a daily basis to protect yourself in the public square, in cyberspace as well.