Have you ever come across any email that looks like it’s from a company, but it looks suspicious? There are many ways that scammers use to spoof email addresses. So in this article, I will show you 3 ways to check if an email is real or fake.
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3 ways to check if an email is real or fake
1. Check the “From” address
Often you will find that fake emails have a “from” address that looks similar to a real email address,
Take the example of Apple. If you receive an email from Apple, you will see that the email address is [email protected]. Scammers will use email addresses similar to [email protected] to try and fool recipients.
Another example is how scammers name reputable companies to scam users. For example, they might misspelled Microsoft by using ‘r’ and ‘n’ to make it sound like an ‘m’.
Additionally, scammers can use various fake websites and software to show you the real email address. In this case, it is difficult to tell if the email is real or not. A sign to be careful is seeing any typos in emails or suspicious links.
2. Check the “Reply To” address
When you receive an email from someone, you usually reply to the same email address, unless instructed otherwise. When scammers send fake emails using someone else’s email address, they don’t have access to the victim’s email account that they use.
If a phishing email needs you to reply, you’ll see a “Reply To” section with a different email address than the one that was actually sent to you.
Scammers use this technique to get replies by tricking you into reading and replying to emails they send using the names of reputable brands, companies, government organizations, etc.
3. Check email headers
There are three main email security technologies used: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These technologies help email recipients check whether it is really from the recipient or a scammer.
Most major websites and companies use these three security measures correctly, as it allows your mail client to detect and block spoofed emails. It should be noted that some companies may not use these technologies or do not implement them properly.
To check the security of an email, click the three dots in the top right corner of any suspicious email and click Show Original. Here you will be able to see each security check and see if the email passed or not.
While the status can’t tell you explicitly whether the email is real or not, it certainly gives a bit of confidence. If you see a fail or soft fail result, then you should probably be careful with that email.
Why should you check your email?
You may be wondering why your email doesn’t automatically check and filter out spam and spoofed emails with so many layers of checks, firewalls, and security. The answer to this question is that of the 140 million domains checked by SPF recently, 80% do not have an SPF claim.
Without SPF confirmation, there’s no way for your email account to correctly filter spam. That’s why you sometimes find important emails in your junk folder and weird spam emails in your inbox.
No test or indication can tell you that an email is definitely fake. You may have to do a lot of email checking if the email is real or not.
In addition, you can also use Ghunt to find email sender information here.
