How to Tell If an Email Is a Scam (Warning Signs & Free Checkers)

The Most Common Email Scam Types

Email scams have grown increasingly sophisticated. The most common types include:

**Phishing emails** — Impersonate legitimate brands (banks, PayPal, Amazon) to steal login credentials or payment info.

**Business Email Compromise (BEC)** — Fake emails from 'the CEO' or 'the CFO' requesting urgent wire transfers.

**Advance-fee fraud (Nigerian Prince)** — Promises of large sums in exchange for a small upfront payment.

**Lottery and prize scams** — Claim you've won money you never entered to win.

**Tech support scams** — Claim your computer has a virus and ask you to call a number or download software.

**Romance scams** — Build emotional relationships online before requesting money.

Knowing these patterns is the first step in identifying scam emails.

12 Warning Signs of a Scam Email

1. **Urgent language**: 'Act now!', 'Your account will be closed!', 'Urgent response required!' 2. **Suspicious sender address**: The display name says PayPal but the actual email is noreply@paypa1.net 3. **Generic greetings**: 'Dear Customer' instead of your name 4. **Unexpected attachments**: Files you didn't ask for, especially .exe, .zip, or Office documents 5. **Hover-over link mismatch**: The visible link says paypal.com but it goes somewhere else 6. **Grammar and spelling errors**: Professional companies proof their communications 7. **Requests for personal information**: No legitimate company asks for passwords or SSNs via email 8. **Too good to be true offers**: Prizes, inheritances, or unexpected windfalls 9. **Unusual payment methods**: Gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers to unknown accounts 10. **Mismatched branding**: Logo looks slightly off, colors don't match the real company's brand 11. **Spoofed domain**: Check the actual domain carefully — paypa1.com vs paypal.com 12. **Pressure to keep it secret**: Scammers often tell you not to tell family or your bank

Free Tools to Check Suspicious Emails

**Google Safe Browsing**: Paste any link from a suspicious email into Google's transparency report (transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search) to check if it's known malware or phishing.

**VirusTotal**: Upload attachments or paste URLs to scan against 70+ security tools simultaneously (virustotal.com). Free and requires no account.

**PhishTank**: A community database of phishing URLs. Check suspected phishing links instantly (phishtank.com).

**URLVoid**: Checks URLs against dozens of blacklists to detect malicious sites.

**MXToolbox Email Header Analyzer**: Paste the full email header to trace where an email really came from — exposes spoofed senders.

**Signal Plug Reverse Email**: Search the sender's email address to discover who actually owns that address and whether it's a legitimate business contact.

How to Check the Real Sender of an Email

The most important scam check is verifying the **actual sender email address** — not just the display name.

**In Gmail**: Click the three dots next to Reply → Show original. You'll see the full email headers including the actual From: address.

**In Outlook**: Click File → Properties (in the Message tab). The Internet Headers section shows the full routing path.

**In Apple Mail**: View → Message → All Headers.

After finding the real sender address, check: 1. Does the domain match the company it claims to be? 2. Is the domain a close misspelling of a legitimate brand? 3. Can you find evidence this is a real business?

Signal Plug lets you search any email address to discover who it belongs to and validate it against known business contacts.

What to Do If You Received a Scam Email

**Don't click anything** — no links, no unsubscribe button, no attachments.

**Report it**: - Gmail: Three dots → Report phishing - Outlook: Report → Phishing - Forward to spam@uce.gov (FTC) or reportphishing@apwg.org (Anti-Phishing Working Group)

**Check if you're already compromised**: - Visit haveibeenpwned.com to see if your email was in any data breaches - If you clicked a link or entered credentials, change your password immediately and enable 2FA

**Report financial fraud**: If you sent money as a result of a scam, contact your bank immediately and file a report with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

If you're unsure whether an email is legitimate, contact the supposed sender directly through their official website — not through any contact info in the suspicious email.