Email risk is a real threat to businesses and individuals. Sensitive information can be intercepted during the transmission process, facilitating unauthorized access or data breaches that lead to financial losses. In addition, malicious email attachments can infect devices, resulting in malware and ransomware attacks that compromise systems or render them unusable or inaccessible.

Identifying high-risk emails is a key step in protecting against these threats. When selecting email addresses for your mailing lists, look for signs of suspicious behavior in messages:

1. The Sender’s Email Address: Look out for misspelled domain names, additional subdomains, and other odd characters in the sender’s name or email address. Additionally, be wary of links in emails that point to websites with unusual or illegitimate URLs. If you’re unsure about the destination of a hyperlink, hover over it without clicking to reveal its true location. 2. Urgent or Threatening Language: Phishers often use fear tactics to trick recipients into taking a desired action, such as changing passwords or clicking on suspicious links. Legitimate organizations provide clear, professional communication that doesn’t contain such tactics.

3. Free or Disposable Email Addresses

Look out for free and disposable email addresses, which may be used by fraudsters to conceal their identities. We detect these email addresses by analyzing transaction history across the minFraud Network and flagging them for their risky behavior. We also identify them when they are passed as inputs to our Insights and Factors web services.