How can I tell if an email is a scam?
Quick answer: Scam emails often create urgency and try to move you through a link or attachment before you verify the sender.
Scam emails often create urgency and try to move you through a link or attachment before you verify the sender.
Watch for pressure, mismatched sender addresses, unexpected attachments, and links that do not lead to the claimed site.
Why scam emails work
A phishing email needs only ten seconds of panic. It borrows a real company’s logo, warns that your account is locked, and offers a link that “fixes” it — leading to a fake page that steals your password. These checks take under a minute and stop nearly all of them.
How to check one, step by step
- Stop. Do not click, download, or reply. No genuine company needs you to act in the next ten minutes.
- Read the sender’s full address, not just the display name — tap or hover to reveal it. Look for tricks: extra words, swapped letters, a zero instead of an “o.”
- Preview links without opening them: hover on a computer, press and hold on a phone. If the destination does not match the company, it is fake.
- Weigh the tone: threats, urgency, “Dear customer,” gift-card payment requests — all classic tells. Polished fakes exist, so never rely on spelling alone.
- Go direct: open the company’s real app or type its address yourself and check your account there. Nothing wrong means the email was bait.
- Report it as phishing in your mail app, then delete it. Reporting helps your provider block the next round.
Pro tip: The threat itself is the tell. Real banks also notify you inside their app — an email demanding instant action is performing, not informing.
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