email and security
Spammers, fraudsters – there are many people out there, using emails for malicious purposes. Here are some of the things worth looking out for, to keep your inbox more secure.
- Be careful of generic greetings, like ‘Dear member’. If you can’t see the name by which you signed on to a service, be cautious and don’t click on any links or buttons.
- False sender’s addresses can be added to spoof emails, be careful of what’s written in the ‘from’ field.
- If there’s a sense of urgency in the email, take care. Many spoof emails try to trick you with the threat that you need to act quickly, for example because an unauthorised transaction has been made on your bank account.
- Take care with links, and always check where a link is going by ‘mousing’ over it and looking at the URL. If you do click one, it could take you to a fake web site, install spyware on your computer, or download a virus.
- Emails that look like web sites are sometimes created to get you to enter personal data.
- Before you enter personal data such as bank details on a web site, make sure it’s a secure site – the term ‘https’ should come before the main address. The ‘s’ in ‘https’ stands for secure, also look for the padlock sign in your browser.
- Pop-up boxes in an email are not secure.
- Never click on an attachment if you don’t know where it’s come from, as it could contain spyware or a virus or other unwanted content.
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where to next?
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