Many services require account verification via email or another channel. Unfortunately, scammers have exploited this setup, most famously in a series of phishing emails claiming to be from Amazon. Carefully read every email and look for the tell-tale signs of a scam, including typos, lengthy sender email addresses and urgent calls to action.

Say you receive an email that has typos and asks you to do something risky like visit a strange site. You click “unsubscribe,” thinking you’ll be spared any such communications in the future. In reality, you might become more vulnerable by doing so. The safest route is to simply delete the message, or blacklist its […]

If you’re sending an email or quickly checking a website on a PC or Mac, do so from a non-administrator account. That way, if something goes wrong, the permissions available to the attacker or malware will be much less extensive, stemming the potential damage.

Providing your email address to a website is often a necessary step for setting up an account. To reduce the amount of mail you receive and avoid phishing more generally, consider using a dedicated email address separate from your personal account. For forums or other quick and non-vital signups, a burner email address might be […]

Spam is the electronic version of “junk mail.” The term spam refers to unsolicited, often unwanted, email messages. Spam email is a common and frustrating side effect to having an email account. Spam does not necessarily contain viruses—valid messages from legitimate sources may also fall into this category.

Phishing is a form of social engineering. Phishing attacks use email or malicious websites to solicit personal information by posing as a trustworthy organization. For example, an attacker may send email seemingly from a reputable credit card company or financial institution that requests account information, often suggesting that there is a problem. When users respond […]