Email Security: Safety Tips & Best Practices For Internet Users !

One of the greatest challenges facing individuals, companies & governments today is cybercrime and the most common scam in this digital age is email scam. This is why email security is very important.

Email scam is a deliberate deception made through email by an individual to another individual for personal gain. Cybercriminals use emails to trick unsuspecting victims into disclosing personal or sensitive information and they will eventually use the information to steal the unsuspecting victims' identity, money or other valuable properties.

Email scams come in different ways e.g. job scams, credit alert scams, help scams, lottery scams, survey scams, charity scams, etc. Most email scams look legitimate, the contents are well detailed and very interesting to read, which is the main reason why many people fall victim on daily basis.

A report by FBI revealed that email scams caused losses amounting to US$ 1.4 billion in 2017. Another report by Action Fraud, a United Kingdom's national report centre for fraud and cyber crime revealed that more than 400,000 reports of phishing emails were received by the anti-fraud organisation each year.

The main reason why many people fall victim to email scams on daily basis is simply because most internet users lack vital information about email security, safety tips & best practices.

How to recognize email scam:
1. Asks for confirmation of personal information.
2. Asks for change of banking details or payment method in a business transaction.

3. Requests for immediate response with a deadline.

4. Comes with an attachment or link.
5. Some words are sometimes misspelled.
6. Claims there is a fraudulent activity going on in your account or credit card.

7. Comes with an offer of free gifts, cheap products or winning of a lottery.

8. In most cases there are grammatical errors in the email.

How to secure your email & avoid email scams:
1. Educate yourself on safety tips & email security best practices.

2. Avoid using public Wi-fi to check your email. e.g. hotels, airport, schools etc.

3. Use strong password. Use at least 15 characters. Mix letters, numbers & special characters.

4. Change your password regularly.
5. Avoid using the same password for multiple email addresses.

6. Don't save your password on your phone, computer or any place where others can access it.

7. Avoid using softwares you don't trust.
8. Avoid opening strange attachment & do thorough investigation before you open any attachment.

9. Run malware & antivirus scans.
10. Always back up your files.
Implementing these email security safety tips will save you & your company from the dangers of email scams.

Rotimi Onadipe, Tel: +234-8169121819 Email: [email protected]