How to spot a phishing email

Picture a stranger at your door wearing a delivery jacket, demanding your house key. The jacket looks convincing, but you check who they are before opening up. A phishing email works like that: it pretends to be trustworthy so you'll hand over passwords or money.

Look for three warnings. First, the sender's actual address doesn't match the company. Second, it pressures you to act immediately. Third, its link or attachment asks you to open something unexpected. A bank-looking email from a strange address saying “act now” and linking to sign in combines all three.

So leave the door shut: don't click, open attachments, or reply. Open the company's app yourself, or call a number you already trust. Report the email using your mail app's phishing button, then delete it. How do you spot and handle phishing? Check sender, urgency, links; verify independently, report, delete.