Have you been on the receiving end of unwanted emails from mystery senders lately? Are you finding an increasing number of strange messages bypassing your spam filters?
While some may be harmless, you should be wary that some may have been sent by email-scamming criminals.
If you’re wondering who’s emailing you, there’s an easy way to look for the sender’s identity. Here’s you can learn who is behind those strange emails.
When Strangers Show Up in Your Inbox
Most of us depend on our email provider’s handy filters to keep spam out of our inbox. Unfortunately these filters don’t stop 100% of unsolicited emails. This means that sometimes you need to use your own judgement to evaluate those that sneak past.
They could be from a friend using a secondary email address you don’t recognize or even a well-meaning stranger who has misspelled the intended recipient address.
They could just as easily be from an expert email scammer who has managed to trick your spam filter into letting them into your inbox.
You can better evaluate whether or not you should open it once you learn the sender’s identity.
How to Find Out Who’s Emailing You
You can usually find out more about who’s emailing you by quickly running a reverse email lookup using a people search engine.
People search engines use sophisticated algorithms to crawl the web for available public data on email addresses (you can search names and phone numbers, too).
Running a reverse email lookup on the mystery sender’s email can give you instant access to lots of information including: their full name, photos, public social media profiles and more. This can help you get an idea of who’s behind the email and whether it’s friendly or not-so-friendly.
Still Don’t Recognize the Name?
If, after performing a reverse email lookup, you are still unsure who’s contacting you, be sure and block sender so they can’t contact you again.
If you’ve been receiving numerous unwanted emails from this sender and others, you can always file a complaint with the FTC, which handles millions of consumer complaints each year.
Ignore and Block
If it really is a scammer, they’re hoping that you’ll respond.
Needless to say, always ignore unwanted and unexpected emails from people you don’t know. Never share personal information (name, address, social security number, banking info) online, or follow links contained within the emails, as these can contain viruses or bring you to websites that will compromise your computer’s security and possibly your online identity.
Ignore and block. That’s all you need to do. As with so much else online, it’s generally a good idea to err on the side of caution. Scammers depend on their victims letting their guard down for an instant.
Now that you know how to find out who’s emailing, you’ll be able to return friendly emails and avoid falling victim to those pesky scammers at the same time.