Found a simple trick to stop phishing emails cold

I kept getting these fake "account suspended" emails from what looked like my bank. Almost clicked one until I noticed the sender address was a jumble of letters. So I started checking the full email header before opening anything. Turns out most scams come from servers in random places like Nigeria or Russia. Has anyone else tried checking headers or do you just rely on spam filters?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninabutler1mo agoMost Upvoted

Man, I'm glad you brought this up. I had a buddy who thought he was too smart to get caught by these things. He got an email that looked like it was from his cable company saying his payment failed. He clicked the link and typed in his info faster than I could blink. Next thing he knew, someone ordered three new phones on his credit card. He spent like two months fighting with the bank and the phone company to get it sorted. He checks every single email header now, even the ones from his own mom. It's wild how fast they can clean you out if you're not paying attention.

nina14723d ago

Oh geez, @ninabutler I gotta gently push back on one thing there. It's not just email headers you gotta check - those can be faked too, you know? The real trick is looking at the actual sender address in the raw details, not just the name that shows up. A lot of these scammers can spoof the header info so it looks legit at a glance. Your buddy should also be careful about hovering over links before clicking, checking for weird domain names like "cablecompany-delinquent-payment.com" instead of the real one. And honestly, if an email is pressuring you to act fast or threatening to cut service, that's a huge red flag right there.

the_karen1mo ago

oh totally, but you're giving your buddy a little too much credit if he thought he was "too smart" - getting hit by a scam doesn't mean you're dumb, these phishing emails have gotten scary good. a lot of them clone the real company's exact branding and everything.