Did you know that there is a time in life when the right thing to do is to type the wrong password? Maybe not? Well, there for sure is a time for that. Hopefully, you will not get in the situation when it is needed, but if you do… this is a good piece of advice!
Every single day we receive emails from mailing lists we have subscribed to, and mailing lists we have no interest in, but that seems to be impossible to unsubscribe from. We receive emails from friends and family and colleagues, from partners, and when we receive emails from official institutions and services that we subscribe to. And then we receive emails from hackers who try to pretend as if they are from Apple Store, Netflix, PayPal, Amazon, or something else, but they are not really anything else than pityful hackers.
You have probably received such emails yourself, and they are disguised as official emails from PayPal, Netflix, and so on. They will often say that something is wrong with your account, that you need to confirm your account information, or that you need to re-submit your payment details. It might seem 100% correct, but you need to be alert if you see something like that.
First of all, check the email address from which the email has been sent. Is it an official email address from the actual company? If not, forget about it as quickly as possible!
Is the email having spelling errors? Are the sentences strange? These might both be signs that you are currently looking at something dangerous.
A third thing, copy the link details to your address bar or a notepad document. Check the address to which you will be taken. If it isn’t the official website, forget about it!
If you decide to click the link…
If you still decide to click the link, and you believe it to be the official website… now is the time to type a wrong password. Do you know why? If it is the real thing, then they will at once discover that you are using a wrong password or a wrong username. If it is a scam, a hacking site, a phishing site, then it will have no clue, and it will let you through no matter what.
And yes, this is the time to type the wrong password and maybe also the wrong username. If it is a hacking site, there is no database in the background that can check the details, and thus, all users will be accepted, no matter how “wrong” the data given might be.
Please, don’t click the link…
The tips I have given might be useful, but please, don’t click the link! Often the fact that you just click the link might start a process of installing malware on your device, and this is something you do not want. So, be on the safe side. Forget about the email. If you are nervous, visit the website of the provider (PayPal, Apple Store, Netflix, Amazon) manually. Type the address into the address bar, visit the website, log in, and check if the accusations are true. But, don’t click the link!
