If it’s one thing I hate, it’s phishing scam emails. I hear about companies that fell prey all the time, so I thought it might be helpful to have a quick reference guide for how to spot a phishing scam email. This guide shows how to spot a phishing scam in Gmail, but the method is basically the same for other email providers.
Phishing Scam Survival Guide: How To Spot A Phishing Scam
Step 1: Identify weird or ‘fishy’ emails. They will have buttons to click and almost always ask you to verify something. Note: DON’T TRUST THE VISIBLE SENDER!!! See the example below where an email that came to the Farm 6 Media email appears to have come from the cPanel of the company domain, but is actually a phishing email.
Step 2: Click on the 3 dots to open the actions menu. Click on the “<> Show original” menu item.
Step 3: Review the original code. Notice how they have masked the ‘from’ email address to look like a company email.
Step 4: Scroll down and look for the Authentication and Received data (highlighted, non-redacted section). Notice how the ACTUAL received path is DIFFERENT from the stated Return-Path. Also, notice how the Authentication was actually ‘softfail‘ and states that the domain farm6media.com does not designate the IP address where the email originated as being from the farm6media.com address shown in the email. These are the red flags – especially the actual received line that clearly shows the actual email origin was zimbramail.serino.com – NOT info@farm6media.com as the viewed email would suggest.
That’s it! Four easy steps to identify phishing email scams. Here’s the takeaway:
- Don’t trust the ‘sender’ address. As I’ve shown, it can be masked to look like something it isn’t.
- Don’t trust ANY email that includes clickable items. Always double check using the above method.
- If an emails asks you to verify any information, make sure you double check it’s source, as per this method.
- Bookmark this page, so you can reference it whenever you need to.
- If you aren’t sure how email can grow your business, need help with email automation, email filtering, or email marketing, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@farm6media.com or by phone (toll free in Canada) at 1 (866) 611-2754.
