ARTICLE
How Landscape Professionals Can Identify Spam Emails Before It’s Too Late
Another urgent email is requesting you change your password to secure your account because your data is at risk of being stolen, or some other terrible incident. All you have to do is click the link, enter your current password, and perhaps confirm your identity by answering a few confidential questions. It seems legit, right?
WRONG! Scammers are getting far more sophisticated in their efforts, and if you’re not careful, you could unknowingly put your private data at risk. If it’s your business account, you may put your landscaping company on the line! So how can you tell if an email is legit or if it’s a spam email that’s phishing?
(1) Beware of Urgency
Be on alert when language suggests you must act quickly, your account has been suspended, or an unauthorized person is trying to log in to your account. While these issues may be occurring, they are red flags for potential phishing schemes, and should urge you to proceed cautiously.
For example, here is a spam email from a scammer posing as PayPal. Note the subject line uses urgent language such as “Response Required,” “Last reminder,” “Emailed you previously,” and “Last chance.” They’ve even used PayPal’s official logo.
(2) Verify the Email Domain Name
A tell-tale sign of a spam email is if the domain name is wrong—note the random characters in the senders’ email address in these two examples. A legit email has a corporate email domain name, so it would read something like name@facebook.com (notice the @facebook.com part). The spam version of that would show the name as Facebook, but the email address would have a questionable ending like @hotmail.com or post.xero.com. You can determine the domain name without opening the email.
(3) Hover Over Link Destinations
Avoid clicking on a link in an email. Instead, open your web browser and enter the address there. In our example email, take a look at the web address where the link leads—it’s certainly not to a mainstream corporate website! Even if the link text shows the correct website address, hover over it to see where it actually leads—this is one way to avoid a common trap.
(4) Spam Form Submissions
Another popular scam tactic involves contacting companies directly through their websites with claims of infringement or threats of legal action if immediate action isn’t taken.
This was a popular one in 2021 and 2022, where a so-called photographer would claim a website used their photos without permission. Another one we have seen is someone claiming a typo entitled them to legal action. Delete!
