Do You Know How to Spot Scam Emails?

Five Tips for Spotting Scam Emails

PC Solutions would like to provide some tips for spotting scam emails.  These are not hardline rules, but more things to look for and to be aware of before opening emails.  If in doubt, please ask for PC Solutions to review the email BEFORE you open it.   Better to be safe than sorry when dealing with spammers.

1) Does the email make sense?  Does it make sense that you would be receiving information from the person or company that is emailing you?  Does their geography make sense in relation to your business?  Does their language make sense in relation to your business?

Spammers are always attempting to put importance on their emails and sending claims from legitimate businesses is a good way to get your attention.  If the company emailing you isn’t someone you have ever dealt with it is more than likely a scam.

2) Does the verbiage of the email make sense? Are there non-typical grammatical or formatting errors? Are there run on sentences with odd capitalization’s?

Typically, scams are coming from overseas and emails are run through a translator which means that there will be errors in sentence structure and context.  For some reason odd capitalization on words and letters will appear.

3) Does the email make demands or outlandish claims?  Are their claims about needing to get or give money immediately and they just can’t get it done until you give them some new bank or credit card information?

Spammers are trying to capture your attention and money is always a great way to do that!  No one wants to have outstanding bills or miss out on a payday.  Again if it is coming from a random source and someone you have never dealt with before, it is probably a scam.  

4) Does the senders email match the senders signature?

This is a dead giveaway, if the senders email address name or domain name do not match the senders signature name or signature email.  A common example of this is getting an email from a large corporation but the email is coming from a Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo address.  If a company is legitimate they typically are not using free email addresses.

 5) What is a Phishing email?

It is typically an email that will try to direct the user to visit a website where they are asked to update personal information, such as a password, credit card, social security, or bank account number.  The legitimate organization already has that info and would never ask for in an email.  Local law enforcement, the FBI, and IRS will not use email as an initial point of contact if there is an issue.

If you think you may have opened an email like the examples listed above, PC Solutions is here to help! Please contact us to schedule a system check to look for hidden maleware or viruses.  PC Solutions also operates a full service repair department for home users too.  We give a 10% discount on all labor charges for our Service Agreement Customer employees.  That is not all– students, seniors (55 and over), and military personnel are all able to save 10% on labor at PC Solutions everyday!