While many people communicate through texting in today’s time, email still has a valuable place in businesses. However, this also means that it is important for you and all the employees at your business to know how to stay safe when it comes to reading potentially fishy emails. Being able to understand how to identify a malicious email is a skill that you will most certainly need to have when you deal with emails all throughout the day. From learning about all sorts of scam emails to understanding that you shouldn’t open any documents that you are not positive about what they are, you will need to know a lot about which emails are safe to read and which ones are not. For instance, you should definitely know how to spot a phishing email as not only are these common but they can be extremely deceptive as well.

What Is a Phishing Email?

As you plan to read up on how to spot a phishing email, you might begin to wonder what exactly a phishing email is and how it looks. Phishing emails get their name for what they try to do; they are designed to fish for your personal information. The type of information these emails are after can vary slightly but they all remain a threat to you and your business. When you open up a phishing email, you are putting your business at risk of hacking, data theft, or even having all of the systems shut down. This is something that no business wants, making it all the more important to be able to spot a real phishing email.

Spotting a Phishing Email

First things first; you should always check the sender. If you do not know the sender or if it is coming from a botched company name, then you should probably leave the email alone. If you’re unsure about the company name, a quick search will let you know if it is legitimate or not. You can also look at the link and see where it leads. If it is not straightforward and to a site that you can quickly check, you should also keep away from it. Most phishing emails are also littered with poor spelling and poorer grammar. Generally, if the email is offering something that is far too good to be true, such as an exorbitant amount of money, then it probably isn’t real.

How Do You Prevent Phishing Emails?

Preventing phishing emails is actually pretty easy. Aside from knowing not to open emails that fall under the description of a phishing email, you can also consider investing in a type of software for your company. There are several types of software out there that can help you out when it comes to keeping your company’s inbox rid of almost all malicious emails so that the chances of opening a phishing email are virtually non-existent.