2mx
internet database design

How to spot phishing

The amount of spam one receives these days is growing bigger and the threat of infection is even greater. One has to be very careful and investigate all emails even though they may appear genuine. Fraudsters will try and trick you in very simple ways.

I received an email recently and thought I would share it.

This specific email seems very genuine and indicates that messages have been `held up` and needs to be released from a queue.
You may also receive emails that your mailbox quota is nearly full or run out of space. You will never receive an email asking you to automatically do either of these functions.The most important thing you can do is check the email address of the sender within the message content.
You can see from the following image that the email is allegedly from "admin@fife.co.uk". If you have an email address from this provider [fife.co.uk] you may be taken unawares.
HOWEVER ! by clicking the email address (showing here with the down arrow beside `to me`) it opens up to see the full email address not just the name of the sender..You can see from this screenshot that the proper name is "admin@fife.co.uk" and the email address is "admin@jetup.com". Clearly a different email address than `fife.co.uk`. The format of an email address can be given by a `name` and an `email` address. The `name` typically being shown to the user. Alarm bells should ring if they appear diffeent !!

Also by looking at the URL links in the message ((please never click on them!!)) You will see something like :

https://07361341345-dot-ugd-vya-odk.appspot.com/eghwl54kd/dljvemaldktjhnwme/?pid=YnJpYW4uZHVuY2ZpZmUuY28udWs=

The URL doesn`t even go anywhere near a web address of https://fife.co.uk.
Pressing on that link and entering any data will provide hackers with your private date or probably infect your computer.

Just received this "Webmail Login Alert" message. Again looking into the actual sender`s email it clearly shows a hacker email from Iraq trying to get your personal details.