1. Home
  2. Business & Finance
  3. Identity Theft

Recognize Identity Theft Scams - Spotting a Phishing Email

From , former About.com Guide

4 of 7

Links Lead You Astray

All phishing emails have one thing in common: links that don’t lead where they appear to. Looking at the link in this email message, it appears to lead to onlinebanking.capitalone.com.

One way to tell if what you see is really where you’ll end up is to place your pointer over the link. (But don’t click it!) A pop-up window like the one shown in the image above should appear with the actual URL attached to the link. In phishing emails, this address rarely matches what’s displayed in the email.

Explore Identity Theft
About.com Special Features

10 Things You Can Do Today to Improve Your Credit

Easy steps to take control of your credit card debt. More >

Holiday Central

What to eat, where to go, fun things to do and how to save money on the perfect gifts. More >

  1. Home
  2. Business & Finance
  3. Identity Theft
  4. Theft Methods
  5. Links Lead You Astray

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.