• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Terry Ambrose

Writing is like a good barbecue sauce, if it ain't bold, it ain't worth doing.

  • Home
  • About Me
    • Interviews
    • Appearances
    • Media
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Me
  • All Books
    • Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mysteries
      • A Treasure to Die For
      • Clues in the Sand
      • The Killer Christmas Sweater Club
      • Secrets of the Treasure King
    • Trouble in Paradise McKenna Mysteries
      • Photo Finish
      • Kauai Temptations
      • Big Island Blues
      • Honolulu Hottie
      • Mystery of the Lei Palaoa
      • North Shore Nanny
      • A Damsel for Santa
      • Maui Magic
      • The Scent of Waikiki
    • License to Lie Thriller Series
      • License to Lie
      • Con Game
    • Anthologies
  • Blog
  • Recipes
    • Appetizer
    • Breads
    • Desserts
    • Main dishes
    • Side dishes
  • Scam Tips & Interviews
    • Authors You’ll Like
    • Reviews
    • Scams and Cons
You are here: Home / Scams & Cons / 5 tips to spot a bogus email

5 tips to spot a bogus email

January 4, 2015 By Terry 6 Comments

Spread the love
  • Tweet

View the latest edition of The Snitch for a great scam tip, recipe, and contest info.
Click the image to view the latest edition of The Snitch for a great scam tip, recipe, and contest info.

Your email program just made a mistake and let an email you suspect may be spam through to your inbox. How do you decide what to do? Click that link? Mark the message as junk? Here are five steps to help you make that decision using an email about a $50 Amazon gift card.

Who really sent it? If your email program isn’t set up to show the sender’s information, check your settings. Each program will be different, but you want to be able to see the sender’s name and the “reply to” address when you view or preview the message. As you can see, the sender was able to spoof the sender name—it shows “Amazon Card Services”—but the sender’s email address is definitely not Amazon’s.

Does the Reply To address match the sender’s address? The second way to tell if the sender has spoofed a sender’s email address is to check the Reply To email address. In this example, you can see the sender’s email address matches the Reply To address, but neither belong to Amazon.

What does the Content Preview show? If your email program is set up to show a content preview, this can be a very easy way to spot purely bogus from real deal in about two seconds. If your program isn’t set up to show a content preview, consult your program’s help system for assistance. Notice how the content preview here is about two guys living in Amsterdam.

Scan the content for errors. English is a second language for many spammers. If you won the 8th grade spelling bee, you’re a step ahead. Likewise if you were an English major and enjoy playing the role of grammar cop. For the rest of us, we have to hope the spammers continue being sloppy and make stupid mistakes. For instance, in this example, they want me to complete a survey, but according to the email they will receive a $50 gift card. Oops.

Look for the really stupid mistakes. Good grief. A recipe? From Amazon? For a survey? This one definitely gets the Boner of the Week Award.


Spread the love
  • Tweet

Filed Under: Scams & Cons Tagged With: email scam, scams

About Terry

I started out as a skip tracer. Just in case you don’t know, that’s the guy who finds the people who don’t want to be found. It was the little things—getting paid to lie—that made skip tracing the fun part of the job.

Those years of chasing deadbeats taught me many valuable life lessons, such as liars come from all walks of life, and always keep your car in the garage.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. laurieg72 says

    January 5, 2015 at 3:44 AM

    I received the PayPal scam emails.

    Right before Christmas I received a Pizza Hut free pizza coupon. I picked up a virus when I opened that one.

    Reply
    • admin says

      January 5, 2015 at 11:19 AM

      I’m sorry to hear that, Laurie. Hopefully, you were able to get rid of it easily. And right before Christmas is a definite bummer!

      Reply
  2. Sandra S says

    January 4, 2015 at 9:10 AM

    Thanks for the scam tips. We all get them from time to time and your alerts definitely help.

    Reply
    • admin says

      January 4, 2015 at 9:17 AM

      Thanks Sandra! Fortunately, there’s no lack of material for me to write about! 🙂

      Reply
  3. michellewillms2013 says

    January 4, 2015 at 8:27 AM

    Thanks for the tip. I’m usually pretty astute about the fake emails, but I’ve had some pretty sneaky ones lately and your tips were very helpful. I love the English tip. I’ve noticed that there are major grammar issues in all the questionable emails I’ve received. I can only hope that continues to be the case. The big thing I see is the fake Yahoo! emails, telling me I have 24 or 48 hours to verify my account information or Yahoo! is going to shut down my account. That’s a great way to get my password. It looks authentic, too. The only reason I haven’t fallen for it is because some scammer sent me a similar email about my PayPal account and I had the good sense to email PayPal directly (NOT from the email I received, of course) and ask about the email I received. I decided Yahoo would practice a similar method of communication (not an anonymous, mass looking, unsigned email). So far, so good.

    Reply
    • admin says

      January 4, 2015 at 9:15 AM

      Hi Michelle, I’m glad this was helpful. Some of them are so good that it really takes a lot to see its a fake. Fortunately, most of the spam is poorly done and it only takes a few seconds. Thanks for following!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Follow Me on Bookbub

Subscribe to The Snitch

Secrets of the Treasure King - Seaside Cove Bed & Breakfast Mystery #4
New Cozy!

Secrets of the Treasure King

View Book

Tags

2020 appearances Australia Award-winning Authors Bestselling Author Big Island book review cozy mystery crime fiction Day Trips email scam events fraud Friday Fotos Great Escapes Book Tours Guest Post Hawaii Hawaii travel Heritage Gardens historical novel humor interview kauai tour literacy Maui photos mystery New Authors Newsletter Recipe New York Times bestseller New Zealand paranormal phishing police procedural romance Russell New Zealand San Diego scams security issues sunrise The Snitch thriller travel Travel Journal 2019 travel tip Your Money

Footer

Join my mailing list to stay in touch

Top posts

  • Excerpt from Murder Can Haunt Your Handiwork by Rose Pressey
  • Is battery reconditioning a scam or not?
  • The Vast Platinum Shopping Credit Card — scam or a good deal?
  • The Broken Spine by Dorothy St. James
  • 6 tips for dealing with Amazon brushing scams
  • Five tips to avoid four Amazon email scams

find me on facebook

find me on facebook

Copyright © 2021 Terry Ambrose · Terry Ambrose · Genesis Framework on WordPress · Log in