A number of people have been reporting fake emails received from individuals posing as official employees from Twitter, Facebook and other corporations. These mails can provide misinformation, or worse, redirect you to a potentially dangerous website where you may be tricked into revealing sensitive information like your password. In today’s edition of ExpressBasics, we will be looking at ways to check and verify if the email you just received from any platform is a legit one. To make sure you’re not being scammed, pay attention to the following pointers. How to identify fake emails Google has made a neat little video explaining the elements one needs to watch out for when opening an email. These cues will help you quickly identify legitimate emails from the fake ones. Check it out below. Twitter Twitter mails will only come from @twitter.com or @e.twitter.com. If you see an email from an individual or other entity, it is a fake one, even if it may have twitter in its name somewhere. Delete the email and block the sender in such cases. Make sure that you do not download any attachments from such emails or click on any links in it. Facebook & Instagram Similar to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram Emails from about your account will only come from @mail.instagram.com or @facebookmail.com. If you receive a mail from any other domain pretending to be Facebook/ Instagram or a Facebook/Instagram employee, you are likely to find trouble in the mail. Avoid opening the same, and if you accidentally do, don’t click on any links or download any attachments. LinkedIn LinkedIn will always send legitimate emails via the linkedin@e.linkedin.com and linkedin@el.linkedin.com domains. Any other mails you may have received could be fake ones. LinkedIn fraudsters are known to send mails offering jobs in exchange for a “fee” which is simply a scam. You may also be asked to download and install malicious apps or software. What to watch out for in mails? Mails that ask for personal information including the following and similar elements should be dealt with carefully. Usernames and passwords Social Security numbers Bank account numbers PINs (Personal Identification Numbers) Credit card numbers Sensitive information like your mother's maiden name or their birthday or any other details which is not public information. This is important because sometimes these are answers to your security question for keep an account secure.
