Appealing to Emotion

Greed: A phishing scam may tempt you with a monetary reward in return for clicking on a link or providing your personal information. If the offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Curiosity: Phishing emails will take advantage of your natural curiosity by promising to show you something exciting in exchange for clicking on a link, or entering your personal information. This is often referred to as click-bait, and is very common on social networking sites.

Urgency: A phishing scam may also try to place a sense of urgency on you to complete a certain action. This is a major red flag. 

Fear: Phishing scams will often times use threats as a way to get you to act. Don’t fall for this.

Strange Email Elements

Odd Sender Address: If the sender’s email address does not match the sender’s name in his or her signature, or if the sender’s email address includes many random letters and symbols, approach with caution.

Strange Tone: If the email content does not read well, and contains multiple misspellings and grammatical errors, do not click any links, open any attachments, or provide the sender with any personal information. 

Unexpected Attachments & Requests for Action

Login Pages: Be highly skeptical of any email that asks you to click on a link and log in to one of your accounts. If you click the link in the email and enter your credentials, the scammer could gain access to your account.

Links: Be careful of the links you click on from an email. Malicious links could infect your computer or mobile device. Before you click a link, place your cursor over it to inspect it. If you are unsure if it is valid, it’s better not to click and be safe rather than sorry.