Avoiding phishing emails – Taos Ski Valley

A phishing email is an email that appears legitimate but is actually an attempt to get your personal information or steal your money. Here are some ways to deal with phishing and spoofing scams.

These are some of the most common types of phishing scams:

Emails that promise a reward. “Click on this link to get your tax refund!”
A document that appears to come from a friend, bank, or other reputable organization. The message is something like “Your document is hosted by an online storage provider and you need to enter your email address and password to open it.”
An invoice from an online retailer or supplier for a purchase or order that you did not make. The attachment appears to be a protected or locked document, and you need to enter your email address and password to open it.
Phishing scams often suggest that failure to respond immediately will result in negative consequences, like a freeze on your bank account.
Read more at Learn to spot a phishing email. Can you spot the issues in the email below?

The following must be practiced by all users to be safe from phishing email attacks:

Never respond to an email requesting personal information, bank details, passwords, etc.
Make a thorough check on poorly spelled emails with grammatical errors
On a mobile device, if you're not sure, by clicking and holding the link, a URL or web address of the page will appear, and determine if it’s legitimate.
On a PC, hover the mouse over the link to see if the URL or web address of the page is legitimate. A preview of the link address will appear in the lower-left corner of your browser.
Never click on suspicious links and always think before clicking.

You can test this with a link to our Taos Ski Valley website. Sometimes they will even make a web link look even more like a website you're familiar with. Can you spot the difference when you hover? www.skitaos.com/staff

Check out this video if you are looking to learn more about how to avoid spam and phishing in your personal accounts.