I don’t know about you but I get a ton of emails every day most of which are from senders I’ve never heard of. Occassionally I see a familiar name in their, like a friend. And occasionally I see one from a company with whom I do business, like Amazon. Or Journey’s, or even my bank. Don’t you just love it when Amazon says you won a contest and all you have to do is “click here?”
Well those can be fun, but, are they real? How can you tell? Well, here’s one simple way to figure it out.
Look at the sender’s email address.
Not sure what I mean? Heres picture of one I recieved from WhoIs. Take a look at the email address above mine.
Draw your eyes to the text after the “@” symbol. It says “whois.com” Go open a new browser window and type in “whois.com” and I’ll bet you that it takes you to the WhoIs web site.
All email addresses from a valid website are usually set up with a name, then the “@” symbol, followed by the name of the website. And nine times out of ten, you can take that website name after the “@” symbol and type it into a browser window to get to it. Pretty cool, right?
So keeping that in mind, check out this one I recieved from Amazon telling me I won a $5000 Amazon Cash Card.
Yeahhhh, that’s not looking good. I have no idea what “xelki.connesten.com is” but is sure isn’t sounding like anything to do with Amazon. So this is a link I won’t click on. And I’ll delete the email without giving it another thought.
Any time you get an email from your bank (especially) or a friend, or a company with whom you normally communicate or do business, slow down. Take a look at that sender’s email address.
What about all your friends who use Yahoo and Gmail for email?
The same rule applies. All Yahoo email addresses have your friends’ name (or something they made up) followed by the “@” symbol and the site name, “yahoo.com.” Gmail addresses have “gmail.com” after the “@” symbol. Even AOL and ATT use the same format.
Remember:
All email addresses from a valid website are usually set up with a name, then the “@” symbol, followed by the name of the website. And nine times out of ten, you can take that website name after the “@” symbol and type it into a browser window to get to it.
To avoid getting into trouble with these:
- Don’t click on any links in email messages with fake email addresses.
- Delete all email messages with sender email addresses that make no sence or appear to not match the company name it’s pretending to represent.
If in doubt about an email message:
- Open a new browser window. Go to the company website using a link you always use. (Don’t use any links in the email: those are part of the scam.)
- Or, use a phone number you always use (do not use any phone number in the email: those are part of the scam.) and call the company to ask about the message.
I hope this helps. Please use the “Contact Jan” form if you have any questions at all.
Sincerely,
Jan