Misuse of data

Often times, even the most convincing phishing emails betray themselves with the email address. Good to know is that most email services and apps show the full name of the sender, even scammers can do that. The sender can enter whatever he wants. Therefore, always click through to the actual e-mail address.

Malicious email addresses can often be recognized in two ways. The easiest case is a striking e-mail address such as mail@x23emm.net or belastingdienst@gmail.com. It is also often attempted to imitate an existing address. Still, it is possible that a phishing email comes from an apparently legitimate address or even from your own email address.

The scammers behind a phishing email would like to extract information or let you click through to a fake website. Therefore, do not just click on links in messages and do not provide personal information by e-mail.

If you still want to click on a link, please check the link. On PCs, you can hover the mouse pointer over a link to view the address. On smartphones and tablets, this works by holding down the link for a moment. If the address looks suspicious, for example with long strings of characters, don't click through.

• Pay attention to language
Phishing emails are often sloppy and contain typos, translation errors, space errors or unusual language. The design of the e-mail is also often not as neat as that of real e-mails from, for example, banks and the government.

However, there are also very convincing and indistinguishable phishing emails in circulation, which may even include your own name. Here too, you have to look at more than one characteristic.


• Do not download or open strange files
If you receive a file from a sender you don't know, don't just download it. The file may contain malware, which can be installed when opened. On a Windows device, don't just open files that end with .exe, and on the Mac, don't open files that end with .dmg. Those are installation files.

Also, don't open files ending in .js, .ink, .wsf, .scr, or .jar. These contain scripts that are automatically executed after clicking.


• Check if the email is a phishing email
On the website fraudhelpdesk.nl all known phishing emails are tracked. With this overview you can check whether a suspicious email is indeed a phishing email.