Data misuse

Often, even the most convincing phishing emails betray themselves with the email address. It's useful to know that most email services and apps show the sender's full name, and scammers can do that too. The sender can enter whatever they want. Therefore, always click through to the actual email address.

Malicious email addresses can often be recognized in two ways. The easiest case is a conspicuous email address like mail@x23emm.net or belastingdienst@gmail.com. They also often try to imitate an existing address. Yet, it is possible that a phishing email comes from a seemingly legitimate address or even from your own email address.

The scammers behind a phishing email want to pry information out of you or make you click through to a fake website. Therefore, don't just click on links in messages and don't provide personal information via email.

If you do want to click on a link, check the link first. 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, definitely do not click through.

• Pay attention to language
Phishing emails are often sloppily written and contain typos, translation errors, spacing errors, or unusual language use. Also, the formatting of the email is often not as neat as that of real emails from, for example, banks and the government.

However, there are also very convincing phishing emails in circulation that are indistinguishable from the real thing, which may even have your own name at the top. Here too, you should look at more than one characteristic.


• Do not download or open strange files
If you receive a file from an unknown sender, do not download it just like that. The file may contain malware, which can be installed when opened. On a device with Windows, do not just open files ending in .exe, and on a Mac, do not open files ending in .dmg. These are installation files.

Also, do not 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 site fraudehelpdesk.nl all known phishing emails are tracked. With that overview, you can check if a suspicious email is indeed a phishing email.