How To Spot Malicious Emails
Throughout the year people order goods that produce alert emails informing the consumer of the progress of their shipment. The image below shows an illustration of a suspicious email.
Item 1 should appear immediately suspicious since a company should know your name.
Item 2 is an attachment that has the potential to infect your computer.
Email with an attachment
A variation on the above could be an invitation to click on a link instead of open an attachment.
Email with a link
Note that the two could easily be combined to create a malicious email that will try to catch people with one or more attachments and one or more links. Some of the links could even be legitimate but the most important links that seem to be the things that need to be clicked on are malicious.
What Should I Do With The Email ?
Just delete it and go direct to the web site you placed an order and check your account for shipping updates.
For example, in the case of Amazon, go directly to the Amazon web site and visit the Your Orders link on the official web site.
Best Advice
The best advice I can offer with regards to staying safe online is…
Do not open attachments or click on links, even if expecting the emails.
Delete the email and go direct to the website.