How to tell if your chain email is fake

Chain Emails

Chain emails or “forwards” are the most common terms given to emails that are just so darned inspiring that they keep getting forwarded from relative or friend to one or more relative or friend. Think “viral.” Or bacteria growing in a petri dish (typically streptococcus or perhaps faecal coliforms) or cellular mitosis.

Typically, and often annoyingly, these emails are created by evil email cat trolls who live in the Center of the Earth whose secret domain is powered by the excess of worthless ascii characters floating around on the Internet (thus the bad grammar and overuse of the letter z.) They have special minions (AOL users) who inject this binary pond scum onto the Internet Superhighway (aka “pipes” if you’re a senator.)

OK, not really. But there are people out there with too much time on
their hands and a sick sense of humor. Often, these forwards make
ridiculous claims: “Yes Josephine,
just forward this to ten people in the next ten minutes and Bill Gates’
magical email tracking program will award them each $100!” Yes, money
is usually the proverbial grease that gets “things” rolling forward (no
pun intended.) Other than flooding the Internet with superfluous
garbage, many chain emails are harmless. Others can be downright nasty
(see phishing.)

Okay, yes, not all chain email is virtual landfill. Sometimes, the jokes are funny. I’m even willing to be “inspired”…once in awhile. However, often, I’ll get email with political / religious / financial / extraterrestrial claims that make my eyeballs spin counter-clockwise.

Phishing

Phishing (pronounced fi-shin…just like “fishing”) is the term for when truly evil trolls attempt to dupe you into believing that the email and accompanying link(s) they just sent you were sent by a legitimate company that you are currently doing business with. Okay, so these are not usually the emails that granny forwarded. However, this guide is about helping you to discover emails that are fake. Phishing emails make up the bulk of fake emails.

Often, they attempt to use FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) to coerce you into visiting a website that looks a lot (or exactly) like the Website for the company that they are pretending to represent. Even I (a snobby-techno-elitist) have nearly been duped into giving up my password a time or two. Here’s how that one works…the bad guys tell you (heaven forbid) your ebay account is suspended and give you a link to login and prove you’re the real hax0rl33t. In actuality, it’s another website that impersonates ebay. You give up your user credentials to them and they dutifully forward you to the real website as a diversion to make you oblivious to the “slight-of-hand” you just didn’t see. There are many scams and techniques in addition to the example I just gave. Adhering to the following list may help you avoid being bushwhacked:

1. Consider the contents of the message before acting impulsively. Slow down and read the email thoroughly.

2. If the email prompts you to click a link, make sure that the link belongs to the domain of the company. Example: ebay in fraud.ebay.lolcats.com or security.ebay11.com is is either a subdomain (of lolcats.com) or a completely different domain (ebay11.com.) in the example of fraud.ebay.com, we can see that the domain name (the second-to-last name before .com or .org etc) is ebay.com. This gives us some certainty that the link is legitamate. Just in case, check google for the company website. Go there and compare the domain name with the one in the email. Note! Sometimes bad guys will send you an HTML email with inline text like fraud.ebay.com that is hyper linked, however, when you mouse over the text, the actual link is something different. Many email clients allow you to look at the source code of HTML email messages. Be careful!

3. When in doubt, just go to the website mentioned via your bookmarks or favorites and log in as you do normally. A little extra caution can save you from making a huge mistake.

4. Use phishing settings on Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. Both browsers have features for detecting phishing websites. I suggest using your brain and following the other steps as they (Microsoft and Mozilla) may not have each and every phishing Website cataloged.

5. Go to the website and read up on the phishing information pages. Many sites will have informational pages on how to avoid phishing scams as it pertains to that Website. They will explain their policy on how they would contact you legitimately, for example.

Not all malicious email is phishing

Be wary of any email that promises you money. Examples include, sheltering money for rich foreign dignitaries in US bank accounts (and getting a big cut of course) also known as the classic Nigerian money scam. Others examples may include an email that you’ve won a sweepstakes and you just need to send some information to claim the dough (I wish those were real. I’ve gotten enough to amass a fortune akin to the pile of gold in Warren Buffett’s coffers by now!) Remember, never give anyone your social security number, bank account information, or any personal information that could compromise your identity.

How to detect phoney forwards

The reason so many people get duped into sending that ridiculous email is that they received it from someone they trust. Often the chain emails will boast, “This is for real!”, “true story!” You can probably skip this section by simply following the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” How bout: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” (even at the Olive Garden.)

If you are still wondering if that Nigerian summer home is a possibility, there are some websites that can give you valuable insight before you’re tempted to click that obnoxious forward button.

Other Resources for Phishing Information

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