When we talk about the digital world, email is the primary means of communication, both personally and professionally. However, it is a medium that is not only used by individuals with legitimate motives, it has also become a widely used method by cybercriminals. This is why it is so important to know how to protect oneself and one way to do so is by using a scammer email lookup.
In recent years, fraudulent emails have become very difficult to identify. This problem has worsened to the extent that it affects not only individuals but also organizations. To avoid falling into these traps, keep reading and learn how to protect yourself by using an email scanner – Searqle.
Why verify the authenticity of emails?
Statistics show that one-third of the emails received are marked as spam, and many of these are attempts of electronic fraud and phishing. This is not the only reason that creates the need to use a scammer email lookup, it is also due to the significant increase in the sophistication of the techniques employed by cybercriminals. These include the following:
- Attachments: these documents included in the message are malicious, so when you open them, they install malware on your device.
- Fraudulent links: these often lead to fake websites where confidential information is requested and will be stolen.
- Emails with purchase confirmations or fake invoices: fake payment receipts trick recipients into opening and downloading malicious files.
If you fall into any of the traps explained above, you run many risks, as the consequences can be varied and, above all, devastating. Among these are identity theft, infection of your device by malware and even financial losses.
If you do not yet have a program with a scam email checker, there are red flags that can help you identify trap messages. These include senders with strange email addresses, messages containing errors (grammatical and spelling), and attachments that you did not request.
Free and paid tools to check email for scammer
If you want to eliminate any possibility of falling into the trap of a message sent by a scammer to your email, the best option is to use a professional checker. This is a specialized program that analyzes the emails you receive for warning signs that you may have overlooked. Fortunately, there are options for everyone, both free and paid.
The internet provides access to a wide range of tools that are easy to understand and, at the same time, effective. This is based on analyzing each message and checking aspects such as the email header, the authenticity of the sender and whether there has been any reported fraudulent activity related to the address.
In the following subsections, we will outline which free and paid tools have proven to be the most useful:
Free tools
Nowadays, there are free resources that do an excellent job of verifying the authenticity of an email. The most commonly used ones are searches on Google and social media platforms like Facebook, X and LinkedIn. Generally, scammer email addresses are disposable, so if the one that sent you a message is not associated with a profile on another platform, it raises some suspicion.
Next, let’s discuss other methods to check for fake email sender that don’t require any payment:
- Have I Been Pwned: website with a massive database that allows you to check if an email address is fraudulent.
- Email header checkers: headers of the messages reveal key data if analyzed correctly and tools like MXToolBox assist with this.
- Fraudulent email databases: some websites maintain databases of blacklists containing emails that send fraudulent messages, like Scam Warners and Spamhaus.
The websites we mentioned in the previous list are very easy to use. When you enter them, simply input the email address you wish to analyze and initiate the search. Within a few minutes, the platform will inform you whether the email is associated with any blacklists.
Steps to conduct a manual email investigation
The process is much simpler than you might imagine, so don’t worry if for any reason you cannot access the tools described earlier. To carry out an effective manual verification, follow the steps we’ve outlined below:
- Verify the email address: the sender’s domain is crucial, especially when they are trying to impersonate a legitimate company.
- Read the message carefully: if the sentences are poorly structured and contain errors, it may indicate that it is fraudulent.
- Check the attached files and links: hover over them to see what link they lead to.
What to do if you receive a fraudulent email?
If an email fraud checker or your manual analysis has led you to conclude that an email is a scam, it is essential to take appropriate action. Here’s what you should do:
- Do not respond, as doing so confirms that your email is active and scammers may decide to steal your data.
- Report the email to the platform of its provider or to a specialized cybersecurity agency.
- Block the email and mark any messages sent from it as spam.
Searqle
Logically, a paid email scam checker is even more effective and one of the most well-known is Searqle. This website is dedicated to the instant search of individuals by utilizing dozens of records from the United States. Whether you are getting suspicious emails or calls and need to find out who this number belongs to, you can search using various data points, such as full name, phone number, physical address and, of course, email.
The powerful reverse email search conducted on Searqle allows for scanning public records, domain databases, social media and online sources. As a result, it analyzes a vast amount of information in just seconds.
Searqle is used in the same way as the free programs we discussed earlier. All you need to do is enter the email address and initiate the search. To successfully complete the process, you must pay for one of the following plans:
- Subscription for one month: $24.90.
- Premium subscription: $44.90.
- Extreme subscription: $99.99.
Conclusion
The number of fraudulent emails being sent continues to rise, and the techniques used by cybercriminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Therefore, you must learn to manually verify each message you receive in your email and also be aware of the free and paid tools that can help you determine if the emails are from scammers.
By doing this, you protect yourself from identity theft, malware, and financial loss. Thus, before opening a link or downloading a file from an email with an unknown sender, verify its authenticity using the methods we’ve discussed, including Searqle.
Founder Dinis Guarda
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