how to detect spoofing
spoofing can be sophisticated so the key is to pay close attention to the details and trust your instincts be wary of websites with no lock symbols or green bars or urls that begin with http instead of https the encrypted version of http another way to tell a fake website is if your password manager doesn t autofill your login a sign that it doesn t recognize the website with emails take a close look at the sender s address keeping in mind that scammers will use fake domains that are very similar to legitimate ones of course typos bad grammar and unusual syntax in the email are also red flags if you re still unsure copy and paste the contents of the email into google where a quick search can reveal if a known scam is circulating finally always hover over an embedded link to reveal the url before you click on it if the url looks suspicious it is likely a scam 3 expand the details of the sender to see if the email address is correct and not just the name also pay attention for alternations in small details like a capital i i for a small l l with phones caller id is easily spoofed scammers often use neighbor spoofing so it appears that calls are coming from a local number they may also spoof a number from a government agency or business that you know and trust the fcc advises people not to answer calls from unknown numbers and to hang up immediately if you do answer such a call 6to hover on a link that s on your smartphone hold your finger on the link for a few seconds a window will pop up that shows the full url of the link this can help you determine if the link is reliable or suspicious 7