Beware of phishing emails

In recent weeks we have seen an increase in phishing emails about domain names. From renewing your domain name to a false registration confirmation. These fake emails appear to come from reliable sources such as Combell, TransIP Support or IPR Protection, but their aim is to steal personal and financial data. 

How do you recognize a phishing email?

Cybercriminals are often poor spellers, so their language errors reveal themselves. However, it is more difficult to spot phishing emails these days, as they are often exact copies of a company's original emails. Fortunately, there are 4 other ways to recognize phishing:

1. Strange email address

Does it match previous emails from this sender? Is this email address on their current website? In many cases the sender is unknown or the domain name does not match the official name.

2. Wrong URLs

Open a suspicious email on your computer and view the URL by hovering your cursor over the link. Does this URL match the official website? Is it URL protected (starts with "https")? If not, definitely don't click on it! Furthermore, don't be fooled by URL shorteners (e.g. t.co or goo.gl) and 'homographe spoofing', where they replace letters with characters that look the same (e.g. letter O becomes character 0).

3. Suspicious attachments

Do not download images or files from suspicious emails without first scanning them with antivirus software.

4. Unexpected requests

Phishing emails often contain unexpected requests to share personal information or transfer money.