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How to Prevent Phishing Scams: Key Strategies & Techniques

How to Prevent Phishing Scams: Key Strategies & Techniques

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What is phishing and how can you avoid falling for this common scam? Learn about the types of phishing, how to identify them, and how to stay safe.
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What is phishing and how can you avoid falling for this common scam? Learn about the types of phishing, how to identify them, and how to stay safe.

Key Takeaways

  • Phishing scams try to trick you into giving away personal info through fake emails or texts that look like they’re from banks, stores, or even coworkers.
  • Watch for red flags like urgent messages, poor grammar, unfamiliar senders, or emails asking you to click links, download files, or share personal info.
  • Use tools to block threats early, like browser security software that warns you about risky websites or extensions.
  • Protect your accounts with unique passwords (use a password manager!) and turn on two-factor authentication wherever possible.
  • Back up your files regularly to the cloud or an external hard drive in case something goes wrong and you lose access to your device.

We’ve all been there. we are checking our email, we notice an email from someone we don’t know so we are naturally curious, we open it and get a story from someone saying we won something, or it’s our bank saying we need to update our personal information and they provide a link where we can do so.

These are forms of phishing scams and they are very common, so how can we protect ourselves against them?

In this article, you are going to learn what a phishing scam is, how to recognize one, some examples of phishing scams used today, and how to protect yourself against phishing attacks.

Let’s get started.

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What Is a Phishing Scam?

Phishing scams are a way of trying to get someone’s personal information using deceptive emails, text messages, and/or websites. The goal of phishing scams is to trick people into believing that the message is something they want or need.

Examples of phishing scams include a request from their bank, a note from someone in their company, asking people to reset their passwords, click a link to visit a website, or download something.

Here’s an example of a phishing email we received:

example of a phishing email

How to Recognize Phishing

Phishing emails and text messages often tell you a story to get you to click a link, submit personal information, or open an attachment. Phishing emails often look like they are from a bank, a credit card company, a social media platform, an online payment website, or an online store.

These emails or text messages may:

  • Include a fake invoice
  • Say there’s a problem with your account or payment information
  • Say you are eligible for a government refund
  • Say you’ve won a lottery or some sort of prize
  • Say you need to confirm some personal information
  • Say they’ve noticed suspicious activity on your account and you should update your password
  • Want you to click a link to make a payment
  • Ask you to reply with your personal information
  • Have poor grammar and spelling
  • Start the message saying, “Hi Dear”, “Attention beneficiary”, or something similar that doesn’t actually mention your name

Sometimes phishing emails may look legitimate but upon closer inspection, you’ll realize that they are fake.

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Examples of a Phishing Email

The first phishing example shows you a message that tries to get you to download a file. Once you open the file, your computer will get infected with malware.

Example of a phishing email urging you to download a file.

The second phishing example pretends to be from a bank and its purpose is to trick people into submitting their home addresses, and phone numbers.

Example of a phishing email impersonating a bank and asking for personal information.

The third phishing example shows a phishing email that tries to start a conversation with potential victims. Those who reply will get a story and then a request for personal information or some sort of payment.

Example of a phishing email asking to start a conversation to get access to personal details.

How to Protect Yourself from Phishing Attacks

Your email is pretty smart and will keep away most phishing emails from ever reaching your inbox, however, just like with any other system, it’s not perfect. And scammers are always trying to outsmart spam filters, so it’s always a good idea to add more layers of protection, here are some of them.

1. Install Browser Security Software

Browser security software will help you protect yourself against potentially harmful websites that try to steal your personal information or insert malware into your system. The software we recommend is Guardio.

Guardio is an anti-malware Chrome extension that blocks harmful sites and phishing attacks directed at your computer. It also prevents future infections by detecting and removing existing malware from your system, blocking harmful extensions, and push notification providers that try to insert malware on your device.

Guardio warning page blocking access to a site due to malicious activity, with options to go back to safety or continue.

Benefits of Guardio

  • Scans every site, page, and service you visit to block any suspicious content it finds.
  • Automatically detects and removes malicious extensions (search hijackers or redirect viruses) that leak personal information, hijack your browser, install adware, or change your browser settings.
  • Blocks intrusive notifications and annoying pop-ups that infect your browser.
  • Sends notifications whenever your data is compromised so that you can act quickly and fix the issue.

Here’s an example of the dashboard you’ll have access to once you install Guardio.

Guardio dashboard showing 84 harmful sites blocked, 5 suspicious sites visited, 16 extensions neutralized, and 13 info leaks.

2. Use Different Passwords

Using different secure passwords for the websites you use is the best way to protect yourself against phishing attacks that aim to access more than one of your accounts with one password. However, remembering many different passwords is difficult at best, if not impossible.

According to research from NordPass, the average user has around 100 passwords so how can we make sure have a different secure password for every website and remember all of them?

Lucky for us, there are tools like LastPass and 1Password that allow us to securely save all of our passwords in one place. These digital vaults (password managers) allow us to securely save them in one place so we can access them whenever we need them.

If you use a password manager, you’ll be able to use and remember passwords like this one: %dJo*AQt0CEM1u2gEj8d

Password generator showing a 20-character strong password with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols enabled.

3. Use Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication (2FA) is as the name implies when we use more than one password to get into our online account or app. Two-factor authentication apps you can use include Twilio Authy, Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, and Duo Mobile.

4. Back Up Your Data

Back up your data and make sure those backups aren’t connected to your home network. You can copy your computer files to an external hard drive or cloud storage like iCloud, Google Drive, or DropBox. This is so that in the odd chance you can’t access your files anymore, everything is securely backed up and you can get your files back.

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Conclusion

We’ve all been there, we are checking our email, we notice an email from someone we don’t know so we are naturally curious, we open it and get a story from someone saying we won something, or it’s our bank saying we need to update our personal information and they provide a link where we can do so. These are forms of phishing scams and they are very common.

Phishing scams are a way of trying to get someone’s personal information using deceptive emails, text messages, and/or websites. The goal of phishing scams is to trick people into believing that the message is something they want or need.

Phishing emails and text messages often tell you a story to get you to click a link, submit personal information, or open an attachment. Phishing emails often look like they are from a bank, a credit card company, a social media platform, an online payment website, or an online store.

To protect against phishing attacks, install browser security software, use different passwords on the websites you use, use two-factor authentication to add another layer of protection, and back up your data to an external hard drive or the cloud to get your data back in case your computer gets compromised.

We hope you found this information useful. If you have any questions about search redirects or how Guardio can help you stay safe online, we’re more than happy to talk and assist. You can contact us at yourfriends@guard.io.

Safe Browsing!

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Scammers often use Google Calendar invites to push fake meeting links. Don’t click on invites from unknown senders.

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Make sure you have a personal safety plan in place. If you believe someone is stalking you online and may be putting you at risk of harm, don’t remove suspicious apps or confront the stalker without a plan. The Coalition Against Stalkerware provides a list of resources for anyone dealing with online stalking, monitoring, and harassment.

Guardio Security Team
Guardio’s Security Team researches and exposes cyber threats, keeping millions of users safe online. Their findings have been featured by Fox News, The Washington Post, Bleeping Computer, and The Hacker News, making the web safer — one threat at a time.
Tips from the expert

Pro Tip: Use a “Decoy Email” for Risky Signups

One of the smartest moves to avoid phishing traps? Create a decoy email account just for newsletters, freebies, contests, or shopping deals. It’s your digital “junk drawer” that keeps your real inbox clean and phishing-free.

  1. Set up a second email address with a provider like Gmail or Outlook (use a variation of your name or something anonymous).
  2. Only use it for non-essential signups, think retail sites, free trials, giveaways, and any sketchy-sounding offers.
  3. Keep your main email exclusive to banks, work, family, and verified services. This reduces your exposure to phishing emails targeting important accounts.
  4. Don’t forward decoy emails to your main inbox, check it manually when needed.

Related articles

FAQs

What should I do if I accidentally clicked on a phishing link?

Clicking once doesn’t always mean you’re compromised but quick action is crucial.

  • Disconnect from Wi-Fi or mobile data immediately.
  • Run a malware scan on your device with a trusted security tool.
  • Change the password of any account that might be exposed.

Guardio has a step-by-step recovery process in its guide: What to do if you click on a phishing link

How can small businesses protect employees from spear-phishing?

Spear-phishing targets specific staff with tailored bait, so prevention must be proactive.

  • Train employees to verify unusual requests, especially for wire transfers or sensitive data.
  • Use role-based email filters to block external senders from spoofing internal emails.
  • Monitor login attempts for anomalies across business accounts.

For business-grade defense, see Guardio Business

Do banks refund phishing scam losses?

Banks sometimes reimburse, but only if you report quickly and prove negligence wasn’t yours.

  • Call your bank’s fraud line immediately if you entered account info.
  • Freeze your card or account to prevent further theft.
  • File a dispute and keep all phishing evidence (emails, screenshots).

For practical prevention steps, see Guardio’s blog: Do banks refund scammed money?

How does Guardio protect me from phishing emails I don’t even open?

Guardio blocks malicious sites and scripts tied to phishing before they load in your browser.

  • Every URL you click is scanned in real-time.
  • Known phishing domains are automatically blacklisted.
  • Hidden redirects and injected scripts are neutralized before execution.
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Can You Spot a Scam Text Message?
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