Internet criminals are constantly inventing new tricks to steal personal data. Seven clues to a fake email, or phishing emails.
1. Language mistakes and crazy sentences
An email with bad or sloppy language is suspicious. Real companies and banks generally send correctly worded emails. Cyber criminals use translation machines. Online translation machines cause sentences that do not flow correctly, incorrect translations, capital letters in strange places or combinations of Dutch and English.
Unfortunately, cyber criminals are also becoming more and more adept at this. This phishing email, for example, is well formulated and looks like a reliable message.
2. The sender
Cyber criminals naturally try to appear as least suspicious as possible. They create email addresses that are almost indistinguishable from real, official emails. Sometimes it’s just a letter difference. Consider, for example, @abnambro.nl: not everyone will immediately notice the extra ‘b’.
Some virus emails are much easier to spot. Unknown senders, often in a language other than Dutch, can easily be labeled as suspicious. In addition, banks and companies do not use free mailboxes such as @Hotmail.com, Outlook.com or Gmail.com. If you see this in combination with, for example, Rabobank, the Tax Authorities or Ziggo, it will probably be a sender with malicious purposes.
3. Someone from your contact list
Note: e-mails from someone you know in your contact list can also contain a virus. In most cases, the person has a virus on his or her computer, after which a program automatically sends (English) e-mails to his or her contacts. You would do well to delete these kinds of messages immediately and to inform the relevant contact person.
4. Links and references
Another trick of cyber criminals is the use of links in an email. These then refer to another (harmful) website. Those links often seem reliable and you can’t always recognize them right away. It is wise to always check where a link leads. How do you do this? Place the cursor, without clicking of course, on the link and then look at the bottom left of your screen. The website to which the link refers will appear in small form there.
5. Personal data
The clue is very simple: no matter how beautiful and real the mail looks, companies will never ask for personal information. You can always change a password yourself and sometimes this is mandatory after a certain period, but the bank or a company will never ask you to provide a password.
Even a so-called ‘outdated’ debit card can simply be removed and does not have to be returned. Personal information about payment arrears or a new bank card is neatly processed in a letter. View an example of such a phishing email here.
6. The salutation
If an email is really important, a company or your bank will never use a general salutation. ‘Dear customer’ or ‘Dear (Sir/Madam)’ can therefore be regarded as suspicious. Banks and companies always use a personal salutation with your own name in e-mails about important, personal matters.
7. Weird Attachments
If you receive a file from an unknown sender, do not open it. The file may contain malware that will be installed upon opening. On Windows, these types of files often end in .exe, on a Mac in .dmg.
Doubt?
Do you not encounter any of the above characteristics, but you still have doubts about the authenticity of a message? Please contact your relevant bank, company or institution to ask whether an e-mail has actually been sent to you.
