Have you been getting more phishing emails in your inbox? Are they getting harder and harder to spot? You need to learn how to spot them easily and accurately. We’ve seen a variety of predatory and creative phishing emails arriving in our clients and our own inboxes lately. You may have heard of friends or people in the news falling for intense phishing scams leading losing huge amounts of money, private info or even identity theft. You may not even know what a phishing scam is. So let’s break it down. They can be scary and build up more anxiety in each of us every day. Fortunately, most simple phishing scams are not hard to spot once you know the signs. Here are our signs to spot a phishing scam in your inbox. Unusual Email Addresses/ Sender Get in the habit of double checking who is truly sending you an email. At the top of the email click on the sender’s name and you should see the full email address pop up. Read it at least twice and check for:

• Misspelled domain or username
• Domain ending in .co instead of .com

The name of the sender does not match the email address. There are extra letters or numbers in the email address.  Misspelled Words and Bad grammar One of the quickest and easiest ways to spot a scam is searching for simple spelling mistakes and grammar issues. Often, we are quickly skimming emails so we miss these, but a quick second look and you will easily spot them. Generally speaking, real and professional emails from your bank, insurance, coworkers or whoever else is the email claims to be from will not contain these simple and avoidable errors.  Scare Tactics Anytime an email contains language that overly emphasizes urgency and makes you panic and want to immediately comply with what they are asking you to do, this is a red flag. Take a moment to step back and breathe. Then calmly read the email again and ask yourself, does this tone match how this person normally communicates? Does this information match what I know to be true about this situation? If you want to be sure that you aren’t ignoring a legitimate email, contact this person via another secure means. If it’s a coworker or friend, send them a text or call them to double check. If it’s a bank or another legitimate company, you use then look up their website and call their customer service line. Never, ever communicate with the sender through any email addresses or phone numbers listed in the email that is making you feel uneasy. Pushing you to Act Urgently Anytime an email is asking you to act quickly on a big request, sharing sensitive info (social security number, bank numbers, addresses etc.) or requesting large sums of money via an email this is a bad sign. It is typically unprofessional for anyone doing legitimate business to pressure you into taking immediate action on an unprecedented and unusual ask and to do so through such an unsecure method. Also, if the email asks you to immediately click on a link or download an attachment, DO NOT CLICK. This is another definite red flag and easy way for someone to get you to download a virus or share sensitive info.