Scammers or the ‘bad actors’ have become craftier and are coming up with a variety of ways to target individuals, including more realistic emails or even text messages. As for detecting fake emails, Monmouth Police Department Investigator Josh Kramer has this tip to spot the fraudsters:
“Usually what to look for, if you scroll to the bottom of the email, and at that bottom of the email, for instance like Amazon, Amazon headquarters if out of Washington state, Seattle, when you get to the bottom you will notice that the addresses are random numbers, random locations. The other thing to think about too is that if you do get that message, go into the actual app, we were talking about Amazon, go into your Amazon account and if they are actually trying to contact you to cancel an order or to question an order, it is going to be in that secured platform that they offer to you. It is not going to be a link out of an email.”
Investigator Kramer says same goes for when it comes to online banking. If you receive an email or text message claiming something needs to be done with your account, log into your actual account or contact the banking institution directly with their legit phone number, not any number provided in the email or text message.
