With the increase in hacking attacks these days one the favourite methods of hackers is to use whats known as a "phishing" email.

They are designed to look like they have come from someone you know or a company you know and get you to perform an action like click on a link and enter your credentials to that website, or pay a fake invoice and scam your hard earned money.

A few simple things you can do to identify email scams are:

  • Check you actually know the person who sent the email to you and you're expecting it.
  • Hover your mouse over any links in the email and confirm they are actually going to the legitimate site and not a close knock off of the name.
  • Check the spelling and grammar for obvious mistakes.
  • If you're not sure ask someone else in your office to look it over and/or check with your IT services or IT support provider.
  • Be very wary of invoices from companies you don't regularly deal with or have never heard off.
  • Check invoices for companies you do business with on a regular basis for any irregularities with their bank account details, if they didn't advise you of a bank account change don't pay it till you've spoken with them and confirmed.
  • All else fails pick up the phone and call the person who supposedly sent it, especially if it's someone you know.
  • Never ever ever open attachments with .exe in the file name no legitimate email will ever have this as an attachment.
  • Ensure your using a quality email security service or anti-spam service that detects these types of emails and stops you getting them.