Contrary to popular belief, spam emails are rarely complex. They use basic social engineering tactics, like phishing links, infected files, and fake landing pages. We’ve known about them for decades. But despite their simplicity, fraud emails still fall through the cracks because many neglect cybersecurity practices.

With billions of spam emails circulating the internet, you should always stay alert—just a single phishing link could compromise all your online accounts. Make sure you double-check messages before responding. And don’t hesitate to block anyone who sends you suspicious links and unsettling alerts.

What Is a Fraud or Fake Email?

"You have a payment of $500 waiting in your PayPal account! All you have to do is click here!" Does this line sound familiar?

Statista says there are around 1.35 million live phishing sites, and each likely sends thousands of fake emails every day. Moreover, Statista reports that spam emails comprise 49 percent of email traffic worldwide. Try scrolling through your inbox: you’ll find dozens of unsolicited ads, alerts, newsletters, and promotions.

This increase likely indicates the efficacy of phishing attacks hidden in spam emails. Unsuspecting users are more likely to divulge personal information to seemingly harmless messages.

That said, fake emails often use blatant phishing attempts. You can avoid most social engineering attacks just by ignoring them, so familiarize yourself with the common red flags. That's why it's important you know what phishing emails look like.

1. Fake Financial Rewards and Promos

Fake Alert and Notice for Bank Deposits

Scam artists will manipulate you emotionally and trick you into visiting their fake landing pages. The most common emotions that they target are greed, guilt, kindness, lust, and fear—the first sort of phishing emails we should focus on involve greed.

Up until now, these were also the most common forms of phishing emails.

Usually, they involve some sort of financial arrangement where someone sends you a large sum of money for no reason. You just have to provide a few banking details and confirm your information, then you'll supposedly get paid. Of course, you're promised a very tempting sum as you can see below.

Fake Bank Transfer for $9,500 on Fake Digital Wallet

These emails often look pretty official. They'll copy the template and format of the official companies they're impersonating. At a glance, many readers won't suspect anything unusual.

This scam just requires you to click a few links. And once you do, the crooks behind it will start executing a sequence of attacks designed to get as much information from you as possible.

Also, note that not all of these scams involve money. Some scammers bait customers into divulging personal information with fake parcels, discounts, or coupons. In the below example, the scammer is pretending to send a lost UPS parcel.

Fake UPS Package Delivery for Parcel and Address that Don't Exist

Traditionally, scammers hired real humans to call and entrap victims, but many have been experimenting with AI-driven bots more recently. They also use synthesizers to mask their voice, making them sound quite convincing. But we guarantee that they're just criminals hoping for someone to reply to these emails. When you see this, quickly press the delete button. If you respond, the only thing that will be transferred is money out of your bank account.

2. Solicitation for Donations

Fake Solicitation Story and Made-Up Sob Story Asking for Money

Email scammers don't just bait victims with money and rewards—they also play the sympathy card. Take the above image as an example. The scammer could reach out to you with a made-up sob story about how they're supposedly in the hospital and need financial assistance. Although some see through these lies, many kindhearted yet unsuspecting individuals could still fall victim.

In many cases, the next step here is for the crook to hijack the victim's account and send a mass email. They'll just forward the thread to all your contacts. They might notice the red flags, but some might also fall for this phishing attack.

They'll wait for an email reply, string out the story a little bit longer, and then ask all targets to send money via digital wallets, mobile banking apps, or online payment platforms. Some might continue engaging with you through third-party messaging apps.

3. Random Offers and Rewards

Fake Paid Task Data Entry Job for Jonathan

You're busy. You can't remember half of the stuff you signed up for online last week, let alone last month. Unfortunately, scammers take advantage of these slip-ups. They'll send phishing emails baiting you with an offer, reward, or approval for whatever contest you never even entered.

Take the "Your Application Has Been Approved" emails as examples. Crooks will send you an "approval" email for a fake job or task that you supposedly applied for beforehand. This attack is especially effective against busy job hunters or hustlers. You won't recall sending an application, but your curiosity may get the best of you, urging you to click that link.

Even more common are the "You Are a Winner" emails. Everyone loves to win prizes, and sometimes the amounts are so exciting that it's very hard to resist replying to that email and "accepting" your prize.

Fake Bank Transfer $4,000 for September 2023

The way these usually work is that in order to receive your alleged winnings, you need to provide your bank information for "direct deposit". What ends up happening is a direct withdrawal instead!

These phishing emails are particularly effective because who doesn't want to believe that they've finally won a prize?

If you can't remember signing up for something, the odds are pretty good that you didn't. Don't click that link—press "Delete" instead.

4. Romance Scams

The proliferation of dating apps, AI bots, and image generators makes it much harder to spot online dating scammers. They can easily create super-realistic profiles. Romance scammers have even been using AI to manufacture appealing, natural-looking output from stolen images. You'll likely encounter a catfish within a few minutes of swiping on Tinder.

Although romance scammers often lurk in dating apps, they also reach out to targets through email. They'll either send you a phishing link or rope you into talking through third-party messenger apps like WhatsApp or Telegram. Some even execute long-term pig butchering scams. Instead of asking you for cash right from the get-go, they'll engage with you regularly and ask for massive favors once they gain your trust.

And even worse, there are cases where the scam artist will pretend to be in some sort of financial crisis or danger. Eventually, this tactic convinces unsuspecting victims to send money in order the help this seemingly innocent, defenseless person.

You should ignore these emails. Sadly, the fact that they even continue to exist means that their success rate must be especially high. If you are looking for love, put your best foot forward on dating websites, but responding to these emails won't get you love. They'll just drain your money and steal your data.

5. Pretexting

Fake End of Account Subscription Message from Norton

Pretexting is another common fraud email strategy. It involves the age-old tactic of manipulating victims and causing panic with made-up yet nerve-racking scenarios, e.g. hacked accounts, virus infections, and legal warnings. Scammers will usually fake authority by masquerading as an official organization.

In pretexting, you'll receive an alarming email warning you of an attention-grabbing issue, which is an expired anti-malware software subscription in the above case. You might not think twice if you're actually a subscriber. Also, the fake warning saying your device is infected might cause you to panic and act hastily.

As we always say, don't click on links in random emails. If you really are concerned there's a warning, hover over the hyperlink and check the URL in the status bar of your browser. If you can't find the URL in the status bar, right-click the hyperlink, copy the link address, and paste it into your Notepad app. You'll see the hyperlink's actual destination.

Fake Data Entry Jobs and Entering Links Into Notepad App

It likely goes to some silly dot-com URL you won't recognize instead of a legitimate business or institution.

6. Email Spoofing

Perhaps the most sophisticated hacking method on this list is email spoofing. It's when scammers copy the domain of a reputable website and link it to a fake email address. Any email they send will look official as a result. Even your email service provider might fail to categorize these messages as spam because they'll have a "legitimate" domain.

Take the below email as an example. It comes from the official email address of PayPal, and Gmail even verified it. Since the message looks legit, its fake warnings and phishing links attached are more likely to lure victims

Email Spoofing Attack and Fake Email from Fake PayPal

The only way to protect yourself from these is through context—double-check the information presented. In this instance, the target knew this message was a scam because his name was spelled wrong, plus he didn't have a PayPal wallet linked to that specific address.

7. Online Gambling Games

Fake Payout Message From Big Casino

Online casino scams are widespread nowadays. Apart from creating rigged games that are impossible to win, scammers also use these platforms to steal Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from players. They're not above spying on in-platform transactions. Many would even let targets "win" a few times so that they'd enter their banking details.

You'd do well to avoid online gambling altogether. There are several safe ways to make money playing games—you don't have to compromise your personal data for a few hundred bucks.

Fake Payouts for Big Winnings and Sole Phishing Link

Again, fraudulent emails are barely complex. These messages are sometimes so simple that they only contain one phishing link and a cheezy bait. Most people won't fall for this attack. However, scammers can recycle the same template thousands of times; they'll only need one victim to make profits.

Just avoid clicking links or downloading files from those you don't know. Visit the involved brand's official website manually if you need to confirm anything.

Also, don't click images or texts because they might contain concealed phishing links.

9. Whaling

Whaling Attack from Fake CEO Asking for Login Credentials

Whaling is a targeted phishing attack where scammers impersonate high-ranking executives, seniors, and authorities from their victims' workplace. These attacks usually come from hacked accounts or spoofed email addresses. They'll likely create a sense of urgency (e.g. made-up emergencies or requests) to trick you into divulging personal and professional details.

To combat these attacks, work organizations should focus on cybersecurity. Not even global tech leaders and reputable institutions are safe from attacks.

Be Vigilant Against Fake Emails

If there's a single message to keep in mind here, it's that the number one defense against phishing is education. If you know how ways to spot phishing attacks and email fraud, you'll be able to protect yourself. You can't blindly rely on antivirus programs to filter your email. Even if you run the most sophisticated anti-malware software, your device could still get infected if you click a phishing link, download an infected file, or log in through a fake landing page. Good judgment is your first line of defense against cyberattacks.

Also, take everything online with a grain of salt. Most phishing emails and frauds prey on human emotions—they won't work if you always avoid messages that seem unusual.