Award-winning web development since 1995
Written: March 27, 2019
My web site is hosted at 1&1, recently renamed to IONOS after a merger, so I pay attention to email that comes from that trusted vendor in case there’s an issue with web hosting services. Today in my Junk mail folder there was a message that had the proper blue logo colors from IONOS:
Apple mail is pretty good when it comes to filtering out unwanted email, but maybe 1 in 100 Junk messages are actually real messages that I need to pay attention to. The first two words of the email message are “Dear Customer“, however I know from experience that IONOS does know my first and last name, plus they know my account number, so a legitimate email message would have those listed to verify authenticity.
The first paragraph starts out with the word “we”, which is supposed to be capitalized, so I’m already 100% certain that this is a phishing email designed to trick me into clicking a link, then stealing my login identity. As I continue to read the message their are typos and misspellings, so yeah, this is not a very bright phishing scheme.
Finally, the link that the malicious schemers want me to click is revealed to be bogus as I hover my cursor over it, revealing the true destination:
So, I wasn’t fooled by this phishing email and hopefully you too can become more vigilant when looking at email messages that arrive either in your Inbox or Junk mail folders. The bad guys are getting more sophisticated in impersonating legitimate vendors by copying their colors, logo and fonts.
A real vendor always identifies your account number, first and last name, plus their links are at a trusted site that you already have used before.
Tags: IONOS, phishing
Several times per week I receive official-looking emails from what appears to be a trusted company or email sender, so today I just received an email using a From Name of “DocuSign Signature”, which is a little odd because most email messages have an actual person’s name in the from field.
On first glance this email appears to be legitimate because of the logo, header, grammar and fonts used. Being suspicious the first step that I take is to click on the From Address to see who was sending the email, or at least pretending to be:
Bingo, the From Address is not coming from @docusign.com, instead it is coming from @srcpro.com, so I am 99% assured that this is yet another Phishing scam to entice me to click a link and end up at a site to steal my login credentials.
A second, but more subtle indicator that this is a scam email is that the message isn’t centered on the page, or left-justified. It’s centered off to the right, which a real corporation like DocuSign would never allow to be sent out.
A third point, if I just hover my cursor over the enticing button, Sign Invoice, it reveals a totally bogus and very unsafe web address:
Finally, the content of the email starts out with, “Dear Recipient” which is always a symptom of a phishing scam. A real invoice from DocuSign would have my complete First and Last Name, plus a known Account Number. This email has none of my account details, so it’s a scam, and I should never click the Sign Invoice.
So, stay safe with your email, be on the guard for clever phishing scams like this one that can at first glance appear to be legitimate, but with a few seconds of double-checking turns out to be unsafe.
Tags: phishing
I’ve owned Apple products for over a decade now and so I do pay attention to emails from Apple, and this is what just came into my mailbox this morning:
Email from Apple?
At first blush this appears to be an authentic email from Apple, but then my eye caught the vertical left line in the email body which in Apple mail indicates a Copied section fo text has been Pasted into the message. Apple would never send me a Copy/Pasted piece of text.
Next, Apple would have an account number of display my first and last names, but not so on this email message. So my suspicions were high that this message was a fake, aka phishing message. Clicking on the From name revealed an address that wasn’t from apple.com, so I knew 100% that this was a phishing message:
Not apple.com
The final confirmation that this email was not legitimate was to hover my cursor over the link included:
Bad link
Although an email may look like an official Apple message, I took several steps of precaution and never clicked the link because I knew that something was a bit off with this message. Hopefully you will become more adept at spotting email messages that are instead phishing for details like your real Apple account login credentials, by thieves who want to steal your digital identity.
Tags: Apple, phishing
I’ve been using Quicken software for decades now to run my business and personal financial tasks, so today when I received an official-looking email from Intuit Quickbooks I took notice.
Phishing email
On the surface this looks a bit legitimate, yet when I probe to view the email from address it shows something invalid:
Invalid address
The final determination that this is an unsafe phishing email is to hover my cursor over the Green button, View Bill Here:
Bogus address
The bad guys are out there sending us phishing emails to trick us into clicking on their links and then start to steal our login identity. Don’t fall for it, just research the From address, Link addresses and then decide if it’s legitimate or phishing. Back to work for me.
Tags: phishing
I have been using Google Docs (aka Google Drive) for several years now, and it’s another easy to use, cloud-based storage where I can keep important documents for my own business or documents to share with clients and other freelance professionals. Today I received the following email message:
At first glance it looks like a legitimate email message, however the subject line includes an email address that doesn’t exist although the domain name is from my own web site.
The big, blue button for View Document links to a phishing web site that has nothing to do with Google:
Phishing Link
S0 now I know for certain that this is yet another phishing scam that wants me to click a bogus link and end up at some web site that will steal my username and password. The second clue that this email is a phishing scam is the From address:
Phishing address
So, be safe today when you receive an email like this one purporting to be from Google Docs, when in fact it is really a phishing scam trying to steal your username and password instead. When in doubt about an email check for these signs:
I do own a few Apple products in my business:
So today when I received the following email it looked legitimate:
Apple ID
The first clue that this email may not be officially from Apple was that it started with Dear Customer, instead of using my first and last name. I next clicked on the From field in the email to see who actually sent the message:
spoof email
OK, so now I knew that this wasn’t an official Apple email because the From address didn’t contain apple.com in it’s name. Furthermore, when I hover over the link for Learn More the address was revealing:
Phishing URL
This is the hacker’s phishing address, not an actual apple.com address.
Even when an email comes from a big name like Apple, do a little checking before clicking any hyperlink, just to ensure your safety and not fall victim to a phishing scheme that is trying to steal your Apple ID and password.
Tags: Apple, phishing
It’s Monday morning, so time to get caught up on my emails for the day. Ah, here’s one from a company that I’ve used before: LogMeIn. They have a neat service to allow remote control of computers, quite the time saver so that I don’t have to hop into my car and drive over to a client location and see what is going on with their computer while browsing a web site that I’ve built.
The actual email looked a bit suspicious to me at first.
What caught my eye first was that there was no corporate logo in the email, or a footer with the typical security language.
Secondly, there was no personal information like my complete first and last name or my account number.
The final determination that this email was a hacking using a phishing scheme was the actual hyperlinks, as I mouse over the hyperlinks they go to some hacked web site in Japan, not logmein.com in any way:
So there you have it, to ensure that an email from a vendor is legitimate look for these good signs:
I just went through my morning list of emails and there was one message from Self Electronics about the shipment of an iPad. It’s a coincidence that I already own an iPad, however I didn’t order any new iPad.
The senders of this email set a subject line as if we had been communicating before, adding a bit to the realism of the message. I was curious if there actually was a company called Self Electronics, so I browsed their web site:
So this company doesn’t even have a valid web site, that’s enough info for me to know that this email really was just another phishing scam where they want me to click the link for UPS tracking. The final test of authenticity is found by hovering over the UPS link:
So the UPS link is really for some bogus web site, telling me that there is no need to be lured into clicking it.
Remember, a real company will know a lot about you and in their legitimate email it will include info like:
If this trusted information is missing from your email message, then it’s very likely that you are being duped by a phishing scheme or just some shady site trying to sell you something that you likely don’t even need. With a little precaution you can make certain that all of your emails are legitimate.
Tags: phishing
Each morning as I start my work routine the first thing that I do is read the Inbox of my email to see which messages require my attention for the day. Today I received two new email scams that at first blush looked almost legitimate.
Domain Abuse Notice
That email subject caught my attention, because the last thing that I want is a web site that is infected by something malicious, so here’s what the entire email looked like:
The English grammar looked OK, however the first clue that this was a phishing scam was their request for me to download something by clicking a link. Any legitimate email would instead be coming from my web hosting provider, and they would have specific details like:
This email is from a domain name called domaincop.net, and when you browse that site something comes up in Arabic letters, so this is not legitimate at all, you may safely delete this particular email.
Email Abuse Report
Ironically this second spam email has almost the identical type of subject line as the first email with a colon and a web site address in it:
The link in the Click Here is for a domain at abusemonitor247.com, which is just another junk content web site. Also notice the international phone number area code. Just like the first email scam notice this one has no customer details:
So the moral of this story is beware of warning email messages that prompt you to click or download a report without any account details. Be smart, be safe.
Tags: email, phishing, scam
As a web developer I own my own domain name of www.tualatinweb.com and several others for clients. Almost every week I receive phony email messages from bogus companies asking me to renew my domain name, or else. Here’s a typical example that I just received a few minutes ago in my In Box:
After a quick glance it could be a credible email because it has a pleasant heading color of orange, and a big, blue button that they want me to push labeled: Renew Now
As an owner of a domain name it is important for you to keep your real account updated so that your web site continues in service without any embarrassing interruptions or down time. Now, let’s dive in and start taking a closer look to understand why this particular email is a phishing scam and not legitimate.
A legitimate vendor has my full name on file, and they will use it in all email communications. Notice that this email has name or personalization included at all. Strike one.
2. My Account Number
Where is my account number in this email? Not to be found. So that’s strike two, folks.
3. Who are You?
As I hover my cursor over the From email address is reveals that the sender of this email is using a domain name of romconsults.com, which is not my actual vendor’s domain name. And that gaffe makes it strike three. But wait, there’s more.
4. English grammar
They used a very odd phrase, “search engine registration” which makes no technical sense to me. Correct phrases would be “search engine optimization” or “domain name registration”.
5. Renew Now
Hovering my cursor over the big, blue button reveals a strange URL address of www.thedomainregistration.net, which is not the name of any vendor that I do business with.
Summary
Trust email only from vendors that you know, where they include your full name, show an account number, have a company logo, and use links to only vendor addresses that you are 100% certain of, otherwise it is a bogus email trying to phish your credentials and cheat you out of money.
Tags: domain name, phishing
Kathy Scott says: Very helpful tips, Daniel, and likely applicable to other suspect emails. I’m going to try the ‘hovering’ on some of those just to see what comes up.
Kathy, thanks, yes these tips help identify other phishing an scam emails. The bad guys are sending out a record number of fake emails, so it pays to be informed and diligent.
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Thank you for the information.
I got the 2 emails today and was just a bit suspicious.
They almost look real so I was worried.