How to spot phishing emails in Outlook?
Phishing emails are malicious attempts to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details, by impersonating legitimate sources. In Outlook, identifying phishing emails can be challenging, but there are several indicators you can look out for, as well as tools to help you spot them more easily.
In this tutorial, we'll cover both manual ways to spot phishing emails in Outlook and how "Kutools for Outlook" can help automate this process.
Spot phishing emails in Outlook with common signs
A phishing email can be dangerous for your personal information and money. To identify whether an email is phishing, please check if the message has any of the following common signs:
- Inconsistencies in email addresses, links & domain names
Phishing emails are usually disguised as official communication from legitimate senders a user may trust. You can check the sender's actual address and the address on the "From" field if they match. Hover over the link embedded in the message, but don't click, to see if the domain names match as shown below. Note that a string of random letters or numbers usually doesn't look like a company's web address.
- Request for credentials, payment information or other sensitive information
Phishing emails are unsolicited and might provide a link or attachment and ask you to provide sensitive information. Remember that most companies will not send you emails asking for passwords, credit card information, or tax numbers, nor will they send you a link that requires you to log in. - Urgent calls to action or threats
Phishing emails often claim that you must take immediate action to get a reward or avoid a penalty. Creating a false sense of urgency is a common tactic in phishing attacks and scams to prevent you from thinking carefully or consulting others. - Grammar errors and misspelled words
Professional companies and organizations always ensure that the messages they deliver are high-quality and professional. If the email has obvious spelling or grammatical errors, it may be a scam. - Generic greeting
Companies you deal with should know your name and usually call you by your name. Phishing emails typically use generic salutations such as "Dear Sir or Madam," or "Dear customer." That's a warning sign that it's probably not your bank or shopping site. - Suspicious attachments
The attachments included in unsolicited emails should be opened with caution. Typically, authentic institutions don’t randomly send you emails with attachments, but instead direct you to download documents or files from their own website.
If you see phishing emails, please do not ignore or delete the spam emails. Instead, report the junk and phishing emails to Microsoft to prevent this from happening in the future.
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Spot malicious emails in Outlook with Anti Phishing feature
"Kutools for Outlook" provides a helpful feature specifically designed to identify phishing emails, making it easier to detect suspicious messages.
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Step 1. Install "Kutools for Outlook", click "Kutools" > "Anti Phishing".
Step 2. Click "Automatically Show Hidden Links" or "Manually Show Hidden Links" as needed.
- Automatically Show Hidden Links: Display all hidden links across all messages, including future incoming emails.
- Manually Show Hidden Links: Reveal all hidden links within the current message.
Now, all hidden links are shown.
Note: Click "Edit Trusted Links" from the "Anti-Phishing" sub-menu, enter the trusted links, and click "OK". If any hidden links match the trusted links, they will not be displayed.
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