Jingle Bells Jingle Bells Phishing smells
Jingle bells Jingle Bells, Phishing smells!
It’s that time of year again. The countdown has begun, and we are eagerly anticipating the holidays. Gathered with your family around the tree adorned with presents, you all look forward to a delightful evening sharing a delicious dinner. Naturally, you want to spoil your loved ones with the most beautiful presents, all while trying to keep costs down. As you search in stores and online, you suddenly receive an email with a fantastic offer. However, you need to act quickly because they say: ‘Offers valid ,while stock lasts’. Do you trust it, and will it result in a wonderful Christmas, or will you be disappointed? Phishing attempts are becoming increasingly difficult to spot, but they still have telltale signs!
Check the sender
If you receive an email, always check the sender’s e-mail address. This is done by hovering the cursor over the sender’s e-mail address. With phishing e-mail, the sender is often an address that is vaguely like the real name of an organization or company. The points below can be a start for checking a received email.
- Check the sender’s address. The sender’s name may be exactly the same as that of your bank or online store, but often the email address used is vague or a derivative version of a real company name or the name of an agency.
- Check the domain name from which you received the email. The domain name can be recognized by everything that appears after the @ sign in the email address.
- Check whether the email address actually matches the website address. A commonly used way to distribute fake emails is to replace certain letters in the domain name with numbers. The difference between a legitimate and fake email address can sometimes be difficult to distinguish. In the following example, 1 (number) has been replaced by an I (letter). Compare the following email addresses to see the differences: info@123fit.com and info@I23fit.com.
Urgent or final warnings
Many fake emails try to put pressure on you by using latest warnings or emergency notifications. An example of such a message is:
Your account will close soon!
We have some problems with your account, Please update the account.
If you do not update your account will be removed. To update your account, just confirm your information. It will only take a minute!”
It’s easy:
- Click the link below to open a secure browser window
- Confirm that you’re the owner of the account, and then follow the instructions.
Do not respond to this via email, but if in doubt, contact the company by telephone.
Asking about personal data
Most often fake emails contain a request to ‘check’, ‘update’ or ‘supplement’ your personal data. Next you have to click on a link to do this. Never just do this. Your bank, insurance company and government agencies never ask for personal information in this way.
Call the company or agency first to check whether they sent the email themselves. Never use the contact details in the email, but look them up yourself.
Language use and design
The current generation of fake emails are getting better and better. They no longer have so many language and spelling misstakes. The logos and photos used are also becoming more and more professional and even copied from the real website. Of course, using a ChatGPT makes these emails even more convincing. It is therefore advisable to read the email carefully and check whether there are any irregularities. If you have any doubts about the authenticity of the email, please contact the organization by finding the contact details of this organization yourself. Do not use the information shown in the email to contact them, it may be fake and you may end up in contact with the scammers.
Links and link shorteners
Be careful when clicking on a link in an email. A link in an fake email can install malicious software on your computer or lead you to a fake website. So never just click on links in an email that you do not trust. Be certain to check the address of the link first by, without clicking on it, placing your mouse cursor on the link and seeing which address appears.
Link shortners
Long links are often shortened by companies so that you can read and remember the simple ones. Those long links are often shortened with services such as T.co, bit.ly and Goo.gl. Very useful and nice for you, but be thoughtful and very careful when using these links as you cannot see where they lead. An option to first see where these shortened links refer can be viewed with one of the websites below:
Attachments
Have you received an attachment in your email? And you didn’t expect this attachment either? So never just open the attachment. An attachment can be malicious and infect your computer.
A zip or rar file is always suspicious, because invoices and reminders, for example, are never sent this way. Double extensions can also be used. For example, this would look like this: Invoice-20231208.pdf.exe Are you expecting a file? Just remember, you can contact the sender to ask exactly what and how they sent something.
Be cautious when opening emails. If you don’t you trust it? Follow your feeling and check it carefully. Better safe then sorry! Stay safe and enjoy the holidays!