Check the Address, Not the Dress: How to Read a Suspicious Email

Modern scam emails can look perfect: the right logo, your real name, polite language and no spelling mistakes. In this episode, Professor Shelldon dissects one, and sorts its parts into 'the dress' and 'the address'.

The dress (easy to fake): logos are just pictures and can be copied in seconds. Your name can be found online. Polite, calm wording proves nothing.

The address (hard to hide): look at the sender's actual email address, after the @ sign, and read the end of it. In 'alerts@reefbank.reef.secure-login.coral', the part that matters is 'secure-login.coral', not the 'reefbank.reef' at the front.

Links: hover over a link (or press and hold on a phone) to see where it really goes. Find the first single slash, and read the part just before it. That's who owns the website.

What it asks for: a real bank won't ask you to send your login details by email.

Bosses are targets too: scammers love the biggest fish, because bosses can approve payments. At work, report strange emails to your IT team. The rule from the episode: check the address, not the dress!