7 ways to spot a Phishing Email

One of the most common ways to contract a virus or infection on your PC or Laptop is through phishing emails. Typically Phishing emails are designed to look like they are from a well-known and trusted company, usually banks, financial organisations or couriers, in order to trick you into providing sensitive information. 

Here's 7 ways to spot a Phishing Email:

1. Emails often contain links, phishing emails are likely to contain links with mismatched URLs. In Outlook if you hover your mouse over the top of any URLs this will display the actual hyperlinked address. If the hyperlinked address is different to the address displayed in the email, it is highly likely that the message is fraudulent or malicious.                    
2. Emails filled with spelling mistakes and poor grammar are likely to be fraudulent. Spelling mistakes are one of the most common signs that an email isn’t legitimate, as legitimate companies would normally have editors who review their marketing emails carefully before sending them out.                
3. A prompt for personal information should be a warning sign, no matter how legitimate the email may look! Regardless of who you bank with, your bank will never email you to ask for your personal details.                                                                 
4. A common type of phishing email is one that appears to be from a delivery company with attachments or links portrayed as tracking information. If you are not waiting for a delivery or don’t recognise the details in the email it is safest to just delete it.                                        
5. Phishing emails often try to trick you into clicking a link by claiming that your account is on hold or that there has been some fraudulent activity that requires your immediate attention. The best thing to do in this case is to delete the email and just log into the account in question, by visiting the appropriate website, and then checking your account status.                                                                                                                                                        
6. If you get an email saying you have won a contest that you didn’t enter, the chances are that this is a scam. No matter how inviting the prize may look avoid clicking the link and certainly don’t provide any of your personal details.                                                                                                                       
7. Emails from financial organisations such as; banks, PayPal, eBay etc. will address you by name and so watch out for emails addressed "Dear Valued Customer" as these are likely to be fraudulent.