What is a fake email?
Spoof emails (sometimes also called “Phishing”) are emails that claim to be from a company or bank. The most common ones usually come from eBay, PayPal, Barclays Bank, etc. These emails will contain a web link, if you click on this link you will be taken to a login page and asked to enter your details. Most of these scammers go a long way to try to get your details, most of the fake emails contain links to identical websites, and users are tricked into entering their personal information. If you submit your information through one of these fake websites, the scammer has all your details and can commit crimes using your identity.
How do you get my email address?
You may be wondering how scammers got your address or learned that you were a member of a particular bank or institution. It’s often just good luck on the part of the scammers. They typically do not target individuals, instead sending thousands of fraudulent emails to randomly generated email addresses, hoping only a few will succeed. They also crawl the web for valid addresses that they can use and exchange this information with each other. If you’ve ever posted on an Internet forum or posted something on the web, there’s a good chance that your address is out there somewhere waiting to be found. If you’ve been a victim before, your address is typically added to an ‘easy victims’ list, and you’re likely to receive even more scams.
How can I identify these emails?
Here are 4 simple tests you can perform on any email you suspect is a fake. Your email can only pass the test if it passes ALL FOUR tests. If your email passes all four tests, then you can be 99.9% sure that it is a genuine email. If your email passes all four tests, we also recommend that you check the “Other Tips” section just to verify that your email is genuine.
If your email fails
If your email fails ONLY ONE of the four tests, then the email is a forgery and should not be responded to and should be immediately deleted from your computer. Even if your email doesn’t pass the test, I advise you to check out the “Other Tips” page for more ways to spot a fake email.
If you still have doubts
Unless you are 100% sure that your email is genuine, DO NOT click on any links within the email. Contact the business in question and ask them to confirm if the email is genuine or fake.
Test 1 – Who is the email addressed to?
Take a look at how email is being routed to you. Most of the fake ones will say something like “Dear eBay User”. This is the first thing to look for in a fake email. Any email that does not address you by name is a forgery. Ebay, PayPal and banks always address you by the name you signed up with on their site, they NEVER send emails saying
“Dear Customer”, “Dear Member”, etc.
If your email is not addressed to you personally, then it is a fake! If your email is addressed to you, skip to the next test to see if it’s a fake email. Some more advanced fake messages have started to include your name or email address instead of the generic “Dear Member” or “Dear User”. So even if your email was addressed to you, I would highly recommend you take the other 3 tests.
Test 2 – Where does the link go?
Most of the fake emails will contain a link telling you to verify your details. You can quickly tell if your email is a fake by hovering over the link. When your mouse is over the link, look in the bottom left corner of your screen and you will see the “link destination”. The destination of a fake link will usually look like this:
“http://slp.clinker.net.mx/.sh/.a/index.htm?SignIn&ssPageName=h:h:sin:us”
Compare this to an actual eBay link:
http://k2b-bulk.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MyeBaySellingSummary
And you can see the difference. You can easily check if your email is fake by looking at the first part of the link destination, if the destination is a combination of numbers (102.382.54.23) or a link like my fake link above, then most likely your email email is a forgery.
Any non-fake link will contain the company name in the first part of the link, for example:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk http://cgi.ebay.com [http://cgi.paypal.com]
Please note: some fake links will contain the words “eBay” or “PayPal” at the end of the link. These are also parodies!
All real emails will only contain the company name in the first part of the link; after http://. If you’re still not sure if you have a fake email, move on to the next test.
Test 3: Who really sent you the email?
This test may seem a bit confusing, but don’t worry, it’s not as difficult as it sounds. What we’re going to do is figure out where the email came from. Most people don’t know this, but you can trace the origin of your emails in most email programs. To do this we need to see the “FULL message header”, this is how this is done in the following email programs. If your program is not listed here, please contact your email provider for instructions:
Hotmail 1. Click “Options” 2. Click “Mail Display Settings” 3. The third option can be used to display the header settings, select “Full” in the checkboxes 4. Click “OK” to save your settings
Outlook Express 1. Right click on the email and select “Properties” 2. Select the “Details” tab
Now that we can see the message headers, here’s how to identify a fake:
Look in the part of the header that says “Received from.” If the email comes from someone other than the sender, it is a forgery. I had a fake email and I ran this test and saw that the email was sent from a Yahoo account. Obviously, a real eBay email would not have been sent from a Yahoo!
Test 4 – Click on the link
Try this only if your email has passed the 3 tests above. Some fake emails are known to contain viruses that are activated when the link is clicked. Make sure you have a good virus scanner installed on your PC before proceeding. If you have important data on your PC, you can also back up that data to a removable backup device.
When you click the link in your email, a web browser will open, taking you to what appears to be a legitimate login page. There are two ways to identify a fake login page, and I’ll show you both! Take a look at the address bar at the top of the login page. Take a look at the http:// part of the URL. Any genuine eBay, PayPal or your bank login page will NOT start with “http://”, it will start with:
“https://”
The “s” in https:// stands for “secure” and is there to show you that you are about to send data over a secure connection.
Any page that does not start with https:// is a fake. The second difference between the two pages is the lock icon at the bottom right of the screen. Please note that the fake login page does not have a lock, and the genuine eBay login page does. This lock appears to show you that you are about to send data over a secure connection. If your login page does NOT have a lock icon in the bottom corner of the screen, then it’s a fake!
Other Tips for Spotting Parodies
1. Punctuation Read your email carefully and look for spelling mistakes. You can be sure that genuine emails will not contain simple misspellings.
2. Advertisements? Real emails from eBay do not contain Burger King ads!
3. Hotmail Identity Verification A new feature in Hotmail now alerts you if a sender ID could not be verified. Any fake email will contain this warning. (Note that I recently received a genuine email from eBay containing this warning, so please don’t judge an email solely by this method)
4. PIN Number Any website that asks for your PIN (personal identification number) is a fake. Do not enter your PIN number! If you have logged in and submitted your PIN, contact your bank immediately.
5. Popup Boxes Some fake sites will include popup message boxes like the one below. The original sites do not use popup boxes that ask you to enter details.
6. False sense of urgency Most fake emails will make you think your account is in jeopardy if you don’t act quickly. This is not the case.
7. eBay Messages Any genuine emails sent to you by eBay will also appear in the “My Messages” section of eBay. To access your eBay messages, please log in to eBay and click on “My eBay”. On the left side of the screen, you will see a “My Messages” link. Click on this; If the email you received in your inbox does not appear there, then it is a fake email.
8. Ignore Email Address Ignores the email address from which the email was sent. Almost all fake emails will appear as if they were from a genuine address. Some of the emails I receive are “from”:
[email protected]@paypal.com [email protected]
[email protected] [email protected]
9. Download the eBay Toolbar. The eBay Toolbar is a great piece of software that can be used to spot counterfeits. As soon as you enter a fake eBay or PayPal website, the toolbar will give you a warning that the webpage is a fake. The eBay Toolbar is FREE to download.