How to Spot a Phishing Email Before You Click
An email lands in your inbox that looks like it is from your bank, a client, or Microsoft. It asks you to confirm a payment, reset a password, or open an attachment. Something feels a little off, but you are busy, and it looks real enough. That pause you feel is worth listening to, because knowing how to spot a phishing email is one of the simplest ways to protect your business.
Phishing works on smart people, not just careless ones
It is easy to assume that only people who are not paying attention get fooled. The truth is the opposite. Phishing works because it catches good people on a busy day. The email arrives while you are between meetings, it looks like something you were already expecting, and it gives you a reason to hurry. The scam is not testing whether you are smart. It is testing whether you are rushed.
That is good news, because it means a few slow, deliberate checks will catch most of these before any harm is done.
The checks that catch most phishing emails
When an email asks you to click, log in, pay, or open something, run through these five checks before you do anything.
Look at the real sender address, not just the name. A scammer can put “Chase Bank” or a client's name in the “from” line. Click or tap the sender name to see the actual email address behind it. If the name says one thing and the address is a string of random letters or a slightly misspelled domain, that is your answer.
Be suspicious of urgency. Real businesses rarely threaten to close your account in the next hour. Phishing almost always pushes you to act fast so you do not stop to think. Pressure is a red flag, not a reason to hurry.
Watch closely for anything about money. For law firms, title companies, and accounting practices, the most expensive scam is a fake request to change bank details or wire funds. If an email asks you to send money or update payment information, treat it as suspicious until you confirm it another way.
Hover over links before you click. On a computer, rest your mouse over the link without clicking. The real web address will appear at the bottom of the screen. If it does not match the company the email claims to be from, do not click it.
Distrust unexpected attachments. An invoice you were not expecting, a “scanned document,” or a file that wants you to enable something are all common ways scammers get in. When in doubt, do not open it.
When something looks off, verify it another way
The single most useful habit is simple: if an email asks for money, passwords, or anything sensitive, confirm the request through a different channel. Call the person on a number you already have. Walk down the hall. Reply to a known good email thread rather than the one that just arrived.
This one rule stops the most damaging scams cold, because the whole trick depends on you acting inside that one email without checking anywhere else.
What to do about it this week
You do not need to hire anyone to make real progress in the next few days.
Tell your team the one rule that matters most: when a message asks for money or a password, verify it by phone before acting. Make it normal to pause and check.
Turn on multi-factor authentication for email, banking, and payroll if you have not already. It is the difference between a stolen password being a scare and being a disaster.
Pick one person to be the “forward it to me if it looks weird” contact, so nobody has to decide alone under pressure.
Small habits like these protect the hours, money, and trust your practice runs on. Most business owners we talk to already have good instincts. They just never had someone put the simple rules in one place.
Not sure where your business stands? Our free IT Risk Scorecard looks at your email, backups, and security settings, and we tell you in plain English what we would fix. No pressure, no jargon. If you would rather just ask a question, reach us any time at puckett.tech, info@puckett.tech, or (469) 436-4150.
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