Recognising Rogue/Suspicious Emails

Christmas time can be a popular period for spammers sending junk and fraudulently emails hoping to infect your devices or at the very worst catching people out at such a busy time to hand over their account details.

These emails can state your Email account was closed or your Mailbox is full and you need to follow a link, or you need to Reactivate your Email Password or your Domain is expiring and need to pay online or that another Payment is due.

I thought I would put together some guidelines to let everyone know you will not be approached for payments online for your Email or Website other than by myself with an invoice nor to reset your email password.

You may have received similar emails in your personal life, they tend to come in cycles, you won’t have any and then in a short period several come in and then you won’t receive any for a long time.

Payment Emails

I will always email you direct regarding hosting and domain renewals and I will always include an invoice with bank details for payment, I will not ask you to follow a link.
If I ever change this payment process in the future I will contact you first to explain before changing over.

Domain Renewals

All Domains are set to auto renew so you won’t receive any direct request from anyone else to keep your domain, if you do that is most likely a suspicious email.

Hosting Renewals

Your hosting will not auto expire and I will always email an invoice around the yearly renewal time so you won’t receive any direct request from anyone else to keep your website, if you do that is most likely a spam email.
If you would like to know when your hosting and domains renew please do get in touch and I can let you know your renewal schedule.

Email Passwords

You will not be sent emails telling you your Email Password has expired and you need to follow a link to reactivate it, you can change your Email Password via the Webmail portal at anytime but they do not expire.
For security Email passwords are not visibly stored, if you have lost your password please do get in touch and I can reset it for you.
It is always a good idea to have a strong password and it can help to change your password now and then just to be safe in the same way we should change all our online account passwords

I have a tutorial on my Client Support Page showing how to Change your Email Password which you can view via: https://clientsupport.cgw3.co.uk/support-docs/email/

Spam Business Emails

You may also receive some emails offering to get you to No.1 in the Search Engines or Cheap ReDesign or Social Media work.
These are more spam than malicious usually especially as no one can guarantee a no.1 search engine slot but they do tend to offer an UnSubscribe link which unfortunately isn’t real and following those links or replying to the email usually means you will receive more spam emails as it confirms to the spammers your email address is live so it’s best to just delete these emails.

Suspicious Email Examples

Below I have included some examples of the type of malicious emails you may receive trying to get you to follow a link and enter details.

Dealing with Suspicious Emails

My rule of thumb for when I receive these types of email is if I am not expecting it or I’m not sure I delete it, if it is real and important the sender will get in touch again.

Unfortunately it is difficult to completely stop these emails as the people involved use ever changing tactics hoping the email looks official enough.

The technical support people who look after the servers that run your website and email do take a proactive approach and once they are aware of suspicious emails they will block the IP address they come from.

Most email applications have a spam filter which let you tell it a email is spam so it learns plus I can increase your mail spam filter level at the server to be ‘aggressive’ with its rules for detecting spam so please do get in touch if you would like me to update that.

Get in Touch

I am always happy to help, so if you receive an email you are not certain about please do Email me and/or forward any suspicious emails and I will check them for you.

Please also do feel free to forward this email to anyone you work with who might find it useful.

Real/Official Emails

Below I have included a screenshot of an official “Mailbox alert” Email you will receive if your Email box is nearing its maximum size.
You will see it includes my Name and Logo and it only directs you to go to your email application or Webmail to see if you can reduce how much space is used, no link asking you to visit a website.