How can you protect yourself against phishing?Email is one of the most popular ways people stay in touch, for both at work and at home. One report found that there were 246 billion emails sent every day in 2019 – and this is expected to rise to 280 billion by 2021.
Much of our day-to-day business is conducted online now – take banking for instance. Many banks produce electronic statements which are stored in our online accounts; they send us a monthly email to remind us to check our records online. We simply click through the supplied link and log into our online account.
Be careful with your emailsBecause you can do so much through online banking,
your user name and password are highly valued by hackers. Armed with those details, they can log into your account and make digital cash transfers to steal all your money.
To help steal your logon details, hackers send emails that look almost identical to the ones sent by your bank – a scam known as phishing. Clicking through the links in these fake emails will take you to a site that looks just like your bank’s. But when you try to logon, instead of seeing your account details you will receive an error message. Meanwhile, the cybercriminal has already captured your username and password, allowing them to get to work emptying your bank account immediately.
So how can you protect yourself against phishing?
1. Check what your bank says about their emailsYour bank will almost certainly have a page on their website about helping you to identify fake emails. This example from Lloyds Bank shows the things you need to look out for, including:
- Incorrect sender’s email address.
- A generic greeting (your name is not used).
- The email includes a direct link – emails from Lloyds do not.
- The email makes threats about suspending your account, or suspicious activity.
Visit your bank’s website and check the help section for details about how to tell if an email is genuine or not. By learning what to expect, you will be better able to spot phishing emails when they arrive in your inbox.