An Email Marketing Glossary For Beginners And Experts Alike Part 16

May 25, 2010

It’s important you only add people who have opt-ed in to your database to prevent problems with your internet or email service provider as discussed earlier in this article series.  It’s critical you honor opt-out requests (and do so within 10 days) as this is a legal requirement of doing email marketing within both the US and Canada.

Phishing – this is the darker side of the internet, and it usually happens through email.  It’s worth mentioning here because so many people get fooled by these scams.  Phishing is where hackers try to trick you into revealing something confidential such as your passwords or your financial information.  Hackers are always becoming better at tricking people into revealing this information, so you always need to be vigilant in assessing the emails you receive from supposed financial institutions.  There’s a very popular online payment service called PayPal and I’ve received  the most sophisticated, real looking phishing emails to date from hackers pretending to be PayPal in the email.  They go so far as to duplicate the exact look of legitimate emails sent by PayPal yet putting their own twist on the email to trick you into logging into your account and revealing your account information to them.

The key thing to understand in distinguishing legitimate emails from the financial companies you deal with from phishing scams is if there is a genuine problem or issue with your account then your financial company will contact you via telephone, NOT email.  Phishers will not have your telephone number (at least not yet!).  If you’re suspicious, you can always call your bank directly and find out if they actually called you or sent you an email about some pressing matter related to your account.

Another way of recognizing scams is looking at the links the email provides you with.  If it’s a PayPal phishing scam then the links provided in the email will NOT be from the company’s actual website which is http://www.paypal.com.  The links in a PayPal phishing scam will be to a completely different website that has nothing to do with PayPal.

Filed under: Attracting Buyers/Sellers With Email

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