Step 1: Spot Spams and Phishes By Appearance and Tone last modified

The purpose of this document is to illustrate the appearance and tone of spams and phishes.

The first step in detecting whether an email is a phish is to look for:

  1. Appearance different from past emails from that sender
  2. Urgency or other emotional triggers
  3. Sloppy language, technobabble
  4. Buttons that ask for sensitive information such as passwords
  5. Decoys that use a familiar name to instill (false) confidence that the email is legitimate
  6. Inconsistencies

Examples of these patterns appear in Steps 2 through 4:
Introduction To Who Sent This Email?
Step 2: Look for Red Flags
Step 3: Reveal the Sender’s Email Address
Step 4: Reveal the Sender’s Website Address