Prevent yourself from Suspicious Emails

Hey Readers, in the last two of my blogs you must have read about various types of email crimes, some real-life cases, and how they happen. Let’s see how we can defend ourselves.

Know to read the mail patiently:-

1. Don’t just jump over it coz you’ve received a mail from someone discussing something fancy about gifts, vouchers, redeem coupons, etc. Take time to read the header also. It will make sure who sends you the mail and at what time.
2. Think. Why would someone mail to you anonymously for such fancy stuff which you are not aware of? Open those emails which are prior to you.
3. If and only if the mail looks so genuine, then check for its company name and Google it. Check its ratings, reviews, go to the website and see the contents, it’s About page. If the mail has some attachments never open it if you’re not sure. Check the website again, search for contact no, and then verify. Remember “Human Error” is the key to all attacks.
4. As I mentioned in step 3, if the site is genuine and you think why you’re struggling so hard to reply forward, take a look into “waybackmachine — internet archive”. You can see the screenshots available of the website that how it was built, its old design, old templates, and all from its timeline. You can also get the first screenshot of the website and when it was. So you can think that how old and genuine it can be.

• Tips to manually trace those emails & get information:-
• Follow these steps when you receive emails that are not part of your curriculum:

1. Open email; check its heading and senders mail address.
2. In the mail, by the top right side, there will be three dots after the time mark. Click on it and you will see the option “Show Original”, click on it. These are all the header files you can use to trace.
3. Just scroll down a bit and you will come across its IP address, time, and various information about the sender. If you face a problem in reading it then search for “cyberforensics. in”. Sign up and in the navigation panel on the left side, there is an email tracer option.
4. Copy the header file of the mail by following step 2 and paste it into the cyber forensics website and start tracing. Within a time you will get the information which you are searching for.
5. Another tool is “cqcounter.com” which also traces the header files.
6. If you want some more information then head towards “readnotify.com”. This is a powerful email tracker and fetches much information about attachments too. Just sign up and enjoy a free trial.

• How to report the crime:-

1. Visit the nearest police station with relevant information like the email itself, if it has some attachments, the screenshots to what happened on your device or social media or anywhere.
2. Lodge an FIR by providing this information and after that, the action will be taken.
3. Or you can visit the crime at “cybercrime.gov.in”, here you can lodge a complaint with your information or anonymously.

So, remember the quote “Human Error” is the key to all attacks.