How To Spot and Avoid Email Phishing Scams

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So I received a phishing email the other day regarding my autoresponder account, and I noticed that quite a few other Internet Marketers were talking about it as well.

I have a few really cool blog posts that I’m ready to share with you soon, but I think the security of your business and personal information takes precedence. 🙂

Phising Email I Received. Click To See Full Size.

I noted some of the features of the email that were suspicious, and I thought I would cover some of it with you:

  1. The first thing that caught my eye was the domain, which does not match the company’s website. Scammers usually register similar looking domains in order to trick you. It’s important to note that you should also pay attention to misspellings, adding an s at the end, different ending such as .net instead of .com, or maybe just a completely different email address altogether.
  2. Although I blocked it out, they also sent the message to an email that is NOT associated with my account.
  3. Looking on the company website, they usually capitalize the “W” in their company name. In the email they did this only a couple of times. Careless errors like this are significant clues to watch out for.
  4. Finally, there are tons of smaller errors such as capitalization and punctuation mistakes, which are very common with these types of scam emails.

Other General Tips:

  • Never click any links in emails that appear to look suspicious.
  • ALWAYS be cautious with emails that say your account has been compromised, suspended, password resets, etc. Basically anything where they ask you for additional info. Our first reaction is to panic but that is what they are preying on. Just take a deep breath, stay calm, and you should be ok.
  • Before following any instructions in the email, go directly to the website by typing it into your web browser. Do not visit any links from the email. Check on your account and make sure everything looks ok.
  • Look at the browser status bar while hovering your mouse cursor over links in the email. You may notice the link pointing to a suspicious looking domain.
  • If you are still unsure, contact the company using info from the website. Do not refer to any information you received in the email to contact them.
  • If you did accidentally click any links or follow the instructions, immediately change your log-in info as soon as possible and you may want to contact customer support as well, especially if your account has been compromised.

A lot of this is common sense, but it is easy to get caught up in the moment when you receive emails like this.  Even a lot of experienced marketers fall for this stuff, but it won’t be you next time because you read this blog post, right? 🙂

Anyway, I just wanted to give you these tips so can stay safe on your journey to building your business and making lots of lots of money!

 

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About the Author
Solomon Huey is a Full Time Internet Marketer who absolutely loves revealing secrets about all aspects of online business. Visit his blog and discover his secrets to making money online and running a successful business. You'll can also get his free website traffic report, that reveals his hidden tricks to getting massive amounts of traffic every single day.

Go to Solomon's Blog now at http://www.SolomonHuey.com

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This message contains content where I may receive some compensation for recommending products and/or services. As you probably already know if you’ve been on my lists for awhile, I ONLY go out of my way to mention a site if I think it’s something I truly believe will help you. =)

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Categories: How To, Internet Marketing
10 Comments

Comments:

    Carol Walczak (2 comments) says:
    27. Jul, 2011   

    Hi Sol, I’ve seen this sort of scam for facebook users too. They tell you that your account has been compromised and that you have to click on the link or your account will be deleted for not reading the official emails. It’s good that you are helping to raise awareness.
    Carol Walczak´s last blog post ..Get Organized for Traffic Exchange Success

    Amarok (1 comments) says:
    27. Jul, 2011   

    One more thing… usually these emails come with an attacment. It´s a web page with the look-and-feel of the actual one. With a difference: you go to type in your log in details that in turn, are forwarded to the hacker. In other words, delete any suspected “Attention”, “Your password has been reset” (or anything similar to that) email from any company. That´s it!

    Comment Tags: Phisinhg +
    Kelli Casey (1 comments) says:
    28. Jul, 2011   

    Thank you so much! This is great information. Now I know what to do if I get one.

    Comment Tags: phishing
    28. Jul, 2011   

    Great tips Solomon, I have learned these from prior experience as well and now scrutinize all that look suspicious. But as a precaution, always be sure to have a good security toolkit like AVG (free) as it will catch these in case you do happen to open one.
    SCAM Spammers Suck!
    Dan Reed | internet marketing secrets´s last blog post ..Article Marketing, Farticle Shmarketing, No Google Love? | Blog Marketing

    28. Jul, 2011   

    great article… really helps…

    Solomon Huey (138 comments) says:
    28. Jul, 2011   

    hey all, thanks for dropping a note and also for the additional tips! There is so much stuff on this topic it’s nearly impossible to cover everything, but hopefully the blog post and comments will give you a good general idea of how to protect yourself. Keep it coming!

    JANICE BROWN (1 comments) says:
    28. Jul, 2011   

    SOL, THANK U FOR THE INFO , BUT I HAVE ALREADY GOTTEN ONE, LAST WEEK. I DIDN’T CLICK ON IT, I DON’T THINK, BECAUSE IT WAS FOR A WEBSITE THAT I WASN’T ON. SO I DELETED IT. OTHER WISE, I PROBABLY WOULD HAVE OPENED IT. THANKS, AGAIN. BY THE WAY, IT’S JUST WONDERFUL TO BE AMONG SO MANY FRIENDLY FOLK. I’M ,REALLY ENJOYING IT. THANKS, EVERYONE AND MAY THE GOOD LORD BLESS.

    Pete Balasch Jr (1 comments) says:
    30. Jul, 2011   

    Great Info to remind folks to be careful out there on the Internet also be careful on clicking skype links even if you know the Person recently a friend was asking to borrow 30.00 I knew My Friend that is a 6 Figure Income earner is not going to beg me to send him 30.00. Also make sure you do not use the same username and Password in everything. You signup for your asking for trouble if you do.

    Solomon Huey (138 comments) says:
    02. Aug, 2011   

    @JANICE BROWN – no problem Janice. And yes there are some awesome people that frequent this blog, so come back and visit us

    @Pete Balasch Jr – another great tip! Personally I use a password generator and software so all of my login info is always unique.

    Anna (1 comments) says:
    08. Aug, 2011   

    Great tips, great article! I do suspect every single emails before I make sure that they are not fake or trying to trick you. I have had an e-course on tracing fake emails and web-addresses.
    Anna´s last blog post ..Dental veneers – what are they?


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