Phishing attacks attempt to trick victims into clicking on links or downloading attachments in emails that appear to be legitimate. A lot of times, phishing emails are obviously fake. But sophisticated ones might spoof the “from” address to look like an official sender and design the email in a convincing way.

On what we have to pay attention, to identify, if a received E-Mail is a phishing email? Well, there are five main point we all should follow up:

Impersonal Salutation: Speeches like “Hello”, “andiheer” (the front part of my e-mail address), “Mr. / Mrs.” indicate a phishing e-mail. The attacker does not know your real name. This does not apply to targeted attacks.

You are not even a customer: If you receive mail with a call to action from a financial institution that you are not a customer to, it is a phishing email.

Suspicious attachments: Invoice or delivery confirmation as a Word document or an attached unsolicited application as a PDF: caution is advised in such cases. Especially if the filename is very generic (“facture.docx”). According Verizonlanden two-thirds of the malware infected via attachments on a computer. If in doubt, ask the (alleged) sender. But not by answering the mail. But by visiting the company’s website and looking for the contact information.

Spelling mistakes and simple language: Bad German or English and a simple language are features for phishing mail. This is, as mentioned in the beginning, but a question of the target group. Do not pull the converse conclusion that a correctly formulated mail is serious.

Specification of personal data: Will the sender want you to reply to the mail with personal information? That’s almost a guarantee for fraudulent mail, such as in the case of fictitious lottery winnings. Your bank, the provider or any other online service provider will never ask for your password. Such requests are another indication. It is more difficult if you are led to a login page. If in doubt, do not click on the link, but open the browser and type the address of the (alleged) sender there.