What does email fraud look like?

Email is an inexpensive and convenient way to interact with people and businesses. Unfortunately, those are some of the same reasons fraudsters use email to get personal information.

Fraudulent emails usually appear to be normal emails. However, if you inspect them closer, there are typically red flags that can tip you off. 

Here are a few things to look out for:

• One red flag could be an email address from a person or business you don’t typically interact with. Another could be a suspicious domain, which is the part of the address that follows the @ symbol.
• Did you get an email with a subject line that doesn’t make sense to you? Or were you included as a reply to something you didn’t request?
• Were you included in an email sent to many others you don’t know?
• Text in the body can also provide clues. Are phrases worded oddly? Are words misspelled? Do you have an uneasy gut feeling about the message?
• Hyperlinks are especially telling. If you hover your mouse over a link and see that it will take you to an entirely different website than the one promised, be suspicious. Also be wary of links that misspell a known site, such as www.veridiamcu.com.

A few more things to watch out for:

• Be wary of attachments. If you don’t recognize them, don’t open email attachments that end with .exe, .scr, .bat, .com.
• Don't unsubscribe. We recommend against unsubscribing from emails. Deleting the email is easier than dealing with any security risks.
• Trash your spam. Don't respond to common spam in any way. Use your delete button instead.

View information as infographic