A guy at the hardware store saved me from a phishing email

I was picking up some PVC fittings in Springfield last Tuesday, and the guy behind the counter, Mike, saw me looking at my phone with a confused face. I showed him an email that looked like it was from my bank, asking me to 'verify my account immediately' by clicking a link. Mike pointed out the sender address was something weird like 'secure-bank-update@mailservice.ru' and said, 'Never click that. My cousin lost two grand that way.' He told me to always hover over links to see the real URL and call the company directly using the number on their real website, not the email. I went home and checked, and sure enough, the link went to a site that looked like my bank's login page but wasn't. I reported it and changed my passwords. What's the weirdest fake email you've almost fallen for?

3 comments

3 Comments

sandrat241mo ago

Used to think those emails were just annoying spam. Almost clicked one pretending to be from Netflix about my payment. Now I check the sender address every single time.

dylan_bell1mo ago

My bank texted me last week with a weird link, said my account was locked. The number was one digit off from the real customer service line. I almost fell for it because I was in a hurry. Now I double-check everything, even texts from my mom.

holly_sanchez751mo ago

Scary how close that was, just one digit off. @sandrat24 checking the sender is smart, I do that now too. Makes you wonder how many people actually click those links before they notice something's wrong.