A Scam Email Example

As we all carry more and more credit cards, it’s normal to receive all kinds of emails from banks every month—monthly e-statements, various promotions, and more. But if your email account isn’t well protected, you may also receive scam emails impersonating your bank. If you’re not careful, you could be intimidated into giving up personal information or even losing money. In this article, we’ll go over how to identify these phishing emails.

Let’s start with an example. I recently received an email claiming to be from “Chase,” saying that my bank account had suspicious activity and had been suspended. The wording looked very similar to a typical bank email. It even included a Chase logo, a “link” to the official website, and even a ticket number. So what was really going on here? In fact, this was an email impersonating Chase. To be honest, it had a lot of obvious red flags. Below, I’ll walk through the issues with this email so you can use these key clues to quickly tell whether an email is really from Chase or just a scam.

How to Tell

Check the sender

Most email apps today don’t show the sender’s actual email address by default. Instead, they display whatever name the sender chose. In this case, the sender gave themselves the name online banking chas (e) app, which makes it look more legitimate at first glance. But if you click to view the actual email address, you’ll see that it has nothing to do with Chase, so it’s clearly fake. Also note that even if you see Chase after the @ symbol, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a real Chase domain. For example, I could create an address like [email protected]. Generally speaking, the real domain is the part right before .com, and that’s what you should check carefully.

From the domain and email address alone, you can usually tell whether the email was actually sent by Chase or by a scammer. For example, a legitimate Chase email might come from [email protected]. The domain there is chase.com, which is fine.

Check the real link

Although the email showed what looked like a normal link, chase.com/service, the actual hyperlink did not lead to Chase’s official website. That visible link text was just text. The real hyperlink was something like reporting.jamieoliver, which obviously looks fake. As for where that link actually leads, it appears to be intended to drive traffic to that site.

I recommend copying the real link from the email and pasting it into the address bar so you can inspect the address carefully. It’s best not to click blindly, because the site could contain malware, which can create even more trouble. If the email is really from Chase, the hyperlink usually matches the visible link text. Of course, some promotional emails may include tracking links, so the actual link may differ slightly from the displayed text.

What You Should Do

If you’re sure it’s a scam email, you can simply ignore it or add the sender to your blacklist. If you’re not sure whether the email is legitimate or fraudulent, the best approach is to call the bank using the phone number on the back of your credit card. Be sure not to call any phone number listed in the email! Just confirm with customer service whether the email is real and whether there’s any issue with your account. If you’re especially concerned about your account security, you can also request a new card number and have a replacement card mailed to you.

Also, try to keep the email account you use for your bank secure. It’s a good idea to have all your bank emails sent to one personal, non-public email address so they’re easier to manage. If you see bank emails arriving in some other email account, that’s often a sign that they’re fake.

These methods for identifying phishing emails are not limited to bank emails. Another common example is scam emails related to Amazon, such as messages claiming your account has been shut down. Pay close attention to the sender and the links.