This Is How to Spot Scam Emails—Plus Common Examples to Look Out For
The nefarious schemes are more common than you might realize.
About 73% of U.S. adults have been scammed online, according to a report from the Pew Research Center. The majority of them are contacted by scammers weekly—sometimes daily. Email scams, also known as phishing, are a main medium (though targets via phone call, text, or social media are also common too). And as technology rapidly evolves, scams have the opportunity to become more pervasive, which is why it’s important to know how to spot them.
Thankfully, scam prevention education has grown alongside the cleverness of their perpetrators. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) both outline specific advice for spotting, avoiding, and reporting email scams. Below, you can learn the common signs of email scams and what to do if you think you received a fake message.
Ways to spot phishing emails
Here are some common signs to look for before responding to an unexpected email.
Grammar or spelling errors
Scam operators don’t always prioritize spelling and readability as highly as real organizations do. So r...