How can I tell if an email is a phishing attempt?
Short answer
Treat any message as suspicious when it creates urgency, asks you to sign in, pay or open an attachment, and comes from an address or link that does not match the organization it claims to be. Phishing works on pressure, so a demand to act right now is itself a warning sign.
The details
Check the sender address, not just the display name. Hover over links (or long-press on a phone) to see the real destination before you tap. Look for a mismatch between the brand in the message and the domain in the link, such as a bank name pointing to an unrelated or misspelled domain.
Generic greetings, unexpected invoices, password-expiry notices and delivery problems are common lures. A message can look perfect and still be fake, so the safest habit is to never act from the message itself: open the app or type the website address you already know.
What to do
- Do not click links or open attachments in the suspicious message.
- Verify by contacting the company through its official app, website or a number you already have.
- Report it with your email provider’s "Report phishing" option, then delete it.
- If you already entered a password, change it now and turn on multi-factor authentication.
Useful next reads and tools
Terms explained
- Phishing
- Phishing is a fraudulent message, usually email, that impersonates a trusted sender to trick people into revealing credentials, paying money or running malware.