Planning Briefs

"Fake news" has exacted a high cost to American culture and political discourse, but the internet fakery that costs you time and money is phishing, emails diabolically aimed to trick you into opening your personal data to crooks and miscreants.

Phishing is the practice of emailing people purporting to be a reputable company to fool people into revealing passwords, credit card numbers, contacts, emails, internet accounts, and your most personal digital data. It's rampant. Whether you're using a smartphone, tablet, or computer, here are some tips for protecting yourself:

Mistakes. Phishing emails often are generated by teens or crooks with weak skills in English punctuation, grammar, and spelling. The phishing email from Office uses an improper style in "24hrs" and the capitalization of the phrase, "Kindly Click here" should arouse suspicion. When you look at this email's bottom line, the copyright is "Office Outlook." The logo is off. The product name is Office 365 and there is no mention of Microsoft in the copyright notice. Does the sentence Terms of Use Privacy & Cookies Developers make sense? It's a hint that this is a fake.