98 MACWORLD AUGUST 2021
WORKINGMAC PROTECT YOURSELF FROM PHISHING SCAMSwhat I was doing and closed the window.
With the Amex messages, they both wound
up filtered into my spam folder, but I looked
at them and thought, “This must be in error.”
However, on closer examination, I realized
my spam app was more observant than I
was, and I never clicked at all.
Here’s what you can do to resist these
attacks launched via email message.DISABLE LOADING IMAGES
Invisible tracking pixels allow both
marketers and scammers to know a
message was opened and may reveal
more than you want about yourself. YouThe mail
convinces you
something is wrong
with your account,
or there’s a great
promotion
underway, and
urges you to click a
link that looks
correct. Clicking
brings you to a
website that wants
your account
credentials.
Proceed—and you
may have given
away the keys to
your kingdom.
This kind of
attack is insidious because most of us
receive so much email from companies
and organizations we deal with that we
can barely manage all of it. A message that
says “credit card exceeded limit!” may rise
above the fray, and you pay attention. The
site to which the email is linked looks just
like what you expect.
I speak from a position of a fellow
sufferer. Over the last year, I’ve received a
text message from “DHL” and two emails
from “American Express” that nearly got me.
I clicked the DHL message, as I was
expecting a package from that service,
which is rare for me—and quickly realized
You can configure Apple Mail to not load any images by default.