Don't Step in the Trap: How to Recognize and Avoid Email Phishing Scams
By Brett Smith
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About this ebook
More and more consumers and businesses are being victimized by increasingly sophisticated email scams, including "phishing" schemes. This handy, step-by-step guide, written in plain English, will show you how to recognize phishing emails. It will help you avoid being taken in by these scams, without having to decipher a lot of computer jargon. Includes quick reference guide and glossary.
Brett Smith
Brett W. Smith is a native of Jacksonville, Florida. He studied math and government at the University of Texas at Austin, and political science, accounting, and German at Brigham Young University. After graduating from law school at BYU, he became an attorney, working both in private practice and in corporate legal departments.He has also worked as computer network administrator and database administrator. He has been fascinated by computers and software since getting his first computer in college, an IBM PC-XT. Its 10 MB hard disk seemed to be immense.Although he is an attorney, he dislikes legalese and prefers plain English. He focuses on making complex topics more understandable.He now resides in Spokane, Washington.
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Book preview
Don't Step in the Trap - Brett Smith
Don’t Step in the Trap!
How to Recognize and Avoid Email Phishing Scams
. . . In Plain English
Brett W. Smith
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2016 Brett W. Smith. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover image supplied by Pixabay.com under Creative Commons CC0 license.
Cover design by Antonia R. Hughes.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Chapter One – What is Phishing?
Chapter Two – Is Phishing a Serious Problem?
Chapter Three – How Do We Recognize a Phishing Scam?
Chapter Four – Who is Sending the Email?
Chapter Five – Who Was the Email Sent To?
Chapter Six – Is Something Attached to the Message?
Chapter Seven – What is the Subject Line of the Email?
Chapter Eight – What Does the Email Say?
Chapter Nine – Is There a Single Key to Recognizing Most Phishing Emails?
Chapter Ten – So What Do I Do with This Phishing Email?
Quick Reference Guide
Glossary
Sources
About the Author
Introduction
IT WAS LATE in the afternoon on Tuesday. The sun shone through the third-floor window, creating a glare on the computer screen. Kyle got up from his desk and adjusted the window blinds. As he sat down, he turned back to the monthly reports he was running for the management meeting in the morning. As an assistant in the accounting department, it was his job to get the reports ready. Some of the reports were done in Excel, and others were run from the new accounting system that the company had switched to eight weeks before. A few still had to be pulled from the legacy system, which was still in use for some accounts while the bugs were being worked out of the new program. It was very time-consuming. Kyle always ended up working late the afternoon before the management meetings. It would be worse than usual today, because he also had to find time to upload the monthly invoice into their biggest customer’s online system.
It didn’t help that his workstation hadn’t been upgraded yet. Running reports in the new accounting system seemed to take forever. At the year-end company meeting, the owner had announced that the older workstations were to be replaced once the revenue had been booked from the completion of the work on the new shopping mall. Kyle was very much looking forward to that happening in the next quarter. Judging by the reports he had prepared so far, it looked like it was going to be a good year.
As he waited for a report to come up, Kyle saw that an email had come in from the IT department with the subject of Admin Notice.
He opened it, and read that his Outlook mailbox had exceeded its storage limit. The email instructed him on what to do to increase the limit. Following the directions, he clicked on the link included in the email, put in his username and password, and hit submit. Once that was