Knowing how to avoid phishing scams is a cornerstone of protecting your personal information. Phishing is one of the most widespread forms of social engineering attacks today, and it can enable malicious actors to steal your identity and hijack your bank accounts and email.
These scams can take many shapes, including fake emails, messages, and websites, and they target businesses and individuals alike. With phishing attacks constantly evolving, spotting them can be tricky, meaning that reliable security software is an invaluable addition for homes and businesses.
In this guide, I’ll explain how to avoid phishing attacks, what to look out for, and what steps to take if your personal or financial information has already been compromised.
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How Does Phishing Work?
These attacks aim to get the recipient to click on a link, download an attachment, or provide sensitive information, like passwords or credit card details, in a web form. Phishing emails typically lead to websites designed to harvest your credentials. They’ll often also redirect you to real websites after you’ve provided your information, keeping you from realizing you’ve been scammed.
For example, a phishing email may tell you that you need to confirm your login information and lead you to a login page at “paypale.com.” Once you log in, though, you’ll end up on PayPal’s real website.
Once the target enters their information, the cybercriminals behind the fake mail can use the details to steal their identity and access their accounts. If you’ve downloaded attachments or visited a compromised website, your device may also be infected with additional malware or spyware that will track your online activity.
How to Spot a Phishing Email
Although new phishing techniques emerge on a regular basis, there are red flags that make most attacks relatively easy to spot. They’re often unsolicited emails urging you to take immediate action and prompting you to provide your credentials or click on links.
Here are some common approaches taken by phishing emails:
- Security Alerts – Emails urging you to “protect” your account, claiming it has been compromised or that suspicious activity has been detected
- Account or Payment Confirmations – These are phishing messages asking you to update your login credentials or payment details – something that legitimate companies will rarely request by email
- Payment Demands – Malicious actors may threaten you with account suspension or legal action due to supposed unpaid debts, sometimes including fake invoices to stress urgency
- Tax Deductions or Refund Offers – Fraudsters may offer tax breaks, exclusive discounts, or refunds to lure you into clicking on links or sharing your personal data
- Prize or Inheritance Notifications – Unsolicited emails asking for your personal information to receive an inheritance or a contest prize – most notoriously the “Nigerian Prince” scam
Common Warning Signs of a Phishing Email Attack
While some phishing attacks are more convincing than others, there are some giveaways that can help you detect email phishing attempts and assist with phishing prevention. Here’s how to identify phishing emails by looking for some common red flags:
- Typos – An email from a real bank, social media, or retailer representative won’t have grammatical errors or spelling mistakes.
- Issues with the Sender’s Email Address – Phishing emails often come from addresses registered with free email domains like Gmail or Yahoo or include slight misspellings in the company’s name. In other cases, the domain of the sender’s email address may be unrelated to the organization that is apparently sending the message.
- Generic Greetings – Messages starting with generic greetings, such as “Dear Customer” instead of your name, are more likely to be email scams, as the same message has been sent to hundreds of individuals.
- Suspicious Links – Be wary of emails prompting you to change your password, enter personal details, or verify your account by following a link.
- Implausible Offers – You should be skeptical of promises of large sums of money, unbelievable discounts, or refunds for products that you never bought.
What to Do If You Suspect a Phishing Attempt
If you suspect you’ve received a fake email designed to steal your data, don’t click on any links in it, don’t download any attachments, and don’t fill out any fields on websites that it links to.
If you’re unsure whether the email you received is real or fake, try to directly log into the account associated with the message – if it’s an email informing you that you need to reset your Facebook password, for example, try logging into Facebook to see if the issue is reflected there. Many antiviruses also include web protection tools that can flag links to malicious phishing websites, warning you of potential phishing attempts.
After confirming that it’s a phishing attempt, report the email and delete it. If you believe you may have compromised one of your accounts by following the instructions in a phishing email, change your password and enable multi-factor authentication as soon as possible, and run a full antivirus scan on your device.
You may want to alert the account provider or, if dealing with a work account, let your security team know. Of course, it’s always wise to keep your software up to date and to back up critical files.
Read our guides on steps to take after clicking on a phishing link, how to prevent identity theft, and how to remove spyware from iPhone for additional advice.
How to Prevent Phishing Attacks and Protect Yourself
Being on the lookout for warning signs is an important first step to protecting yourself from phishing, but there are a number of other measures you can take to secure yourself.
Some of the best antivirus solutions – including TotalAV, Norton, and NordVPN Threat Protection – offer built-in phishing protection and can help you identify red flags in your emails. They can automatically detect and flag malicious links, malware-infected attachments, and malicious websites and help stop them from stealing your data.
It’s also important to regularly update your antivirus software to ensure it can combat novel viruses and even the most advanced cyber threats. You should also keep your operating system and apps up to date to minimize the risk of identity theft.
Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) is another critical security measure. MFA adds an extra layer of security to your online accounts by asking for additional verification, such as a one-time password or biometric authentication, in addition to your account’s password.
This means a fraudster can’t access your account with your password alone. Using one of the best password managers, like NordPass, can also help you assign strong, unique passwords for every one of your online accounts while making it easy to access and manage them.
It’s also important to avoid sharing your email address and phone number online as much as possible and try not to share more personal information than you need to while signing up for new services. Limiting the amount of information available on you can help protect you from phishing attacks and makes you a harder target for phishing scammers.
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Types of Phishing Attacks – Spotting a Phishing Scam or a Phishing Attack
While some phishing scams can be easy to detect, malicious actors with plenty of experience and resources can deceive even the most tech-savvy users. There are a range of phishing attack types used by fraudsters today – and here’s a list of some of the approaches you’re most likely to run into:
- Email Phishing – Although restrained by advanced email filtering technologies, email phishing remains one of the most prevalent phishing attack types, according to APWG.
- Vishing or VoIP Phishing – This is a phishing scam conducted via phone calls, where the attacker impersonates a representative of a legitimate organization.
- Spear Phishing – Phishing attacks that target a specific organization or individual using their information.
- Angler Phishing – This involves fake social media accounts posing as legitimate customer service channels, seeking to lure targets into sharing their credentials.
- Pharming – These attacks occur when a user is redirected from a legitimate website to a fraudulent one without their knowledge, typically through malicious code. See our guide to how to stop Google redirects to Bing for advice on tackling unexpected redirects.
- SMS Phishing or Smishing – These are fraudulent text messages that attempt to extract the target’s personal information or make the recipient click on a link.
- QR Code Phishing – These attacks involve malicious QR codes that lead to fraudulent websites or malware-infected downloadable content designed to harvest information.
Conclusion – How to Prevent Phishing and Spot Phishing Emails
Phishing emails pose a significant threat to your privacy and can often lead to identity theft and financial losses. Knowing how to prevent phishing attacks is crucial, and you should always be on the lookout for typos, poor grammar, suspicious links, and other red flags in emails and SMS messages.
Investing in security software with anti-phishing features, such as TotalAV, NordVPN, and Norton, can be invaluable. These tools will automatically flag suspicious content in your emails, preventing you from falling victim to phishing attacks.
Additionally, having a reliable password manager and setting up multi-factor authentication on your online accounts can enhance your overall security and in how to avoid being a victim of phishing.