Hello, dear reader, this article is for those struggling with identifying spam calls, texts, and emails. I have helped clients (and dealt with spam myself) and have a few tips to help you out!

  1. Apply the SNIFF Test!
  2. Google the name or number!

1.The SNIFF Test is a series of 5 questions I recommend anyone asks themselves about any communication they receive. If it can pass the SNIFF Test, but you still feel like something is wrong, try to do a Google search of or contact the company a different way to verify the legitimacy of a message. Often companies or individuals will learn of attempts to swindle their customers and contacts and can let you know if you can ignore a message.

Is the message: Suspicious? Name? Irregular? Fluent? Forceful?

SUSPICIOUS: Is this message suspicious? Did a company or individual you’ve never heard of try to contact you? Maybe they are claiming to be a lawyer of your long lost uncle from a foreign land with no heirs who has left a large inheritance for the closest relative. Yeah right. It doesn’t pass the SNIFF Test. If in doubt, I recommend checking if anyone with your last name is in the foreign country. They would be a more likely relative to contact than you! It’s too good to be true. Often, if you check a fake website you will see a decent looking site with some nice pictures. But no depth to their information. No good way to contact them. No biographies longer than a paragraph for their lawyers. Etc. This is because stock photos and websites are easier than ever to create. But a little bit of digging will show how shallow the claim is.

NAME: The fastest part of the SNIFF test is to quickly look at the full email address of the sender. Often emails can look like a first name or a company name until you hover over it and reveal the full email address. For example, you may get something that looks like it’s from the post office or a government agency. Many times these spam emails will actually be a longer sender such as “Post Office Andrew@genericwebsite1234.com”. NO Post office worker should be sending an email ending in “@genericwebsite1234.com”. In Gmail, simply hover your mouse over the suspicious name without clicking it or moving it any further and the full address should appear in a box. Similarly, any phone call should be verifiable by calling the real agency’s phone number without responding to the spammer’s phone directly. Look out for fake organizations or supposed managers!

IRREGULAR: If a company, government agency or friend sends a message to you in a way they NEVER have before, it’s probably not real. Maybe they suddenly send you a Crypto currency endorsement over Facebook Messenger, or suddenly ask for your credit card. Once again, I advise, if you think there’s a chance it’s a real message, find a separate way to contact the supposed sender to verify if it’s real. Also, don’t send or accept mass forwarded message chains! Those are ripe for scamming.

FLUENT: Is the message poorly written? Featuring bad grammar? Does it seem like English isn’t the first language of whoever wrote or called you? Then it probably isn’t a legitimate message. It costs scammers very little to pay people in other countries to go down the phone book to make mass calls. All it takes is one success to pay for more scams. And they can make thousands of automated messages easily.

FORCEFUL: If a message is extremely tense with its wording, forcing a short response time or claiming drastic responses to inaction, then it’s probably fake! No government agency or legal business should be operating without giving plenty of notice for any issues. Maybe you’d receive an urgent message after several messages have been unresolved.

An example spam message could be something like the following:

sender – USPS

subject -STOPPING YOUR MAIL UNLESS YOU PAY PENALTY FEE

USPS@chandraxxx24@hotmail.com writing you, “The USPS will STOP all of your mail for the rest of the year if you don’t pay $199.99 tody at the following link USPS@chandraxxx24@hotmail.com through Venmo, then the USPS wil fors you to accept no mail the rest of the year.”

2. What do you do if you still have questions? Google the phone number. Just type it in. See if people have reported it as a scam. Google the organization represented by a message. Contact them through what you know is a legitimate channel of communication! They are often aware of attacks or scams and can inform you if a message was legitimate.

Once upon a time, a fake law firm said it was from a foreign country and had money for me from a long lost relative. They left a phone number on the message. I ignored the given number. Instead I was able to find a website. It had nice photos. But NO WAY to contact the business. NO information beyond a stock paragraph on lawyers. Just for fun I also googled how many people could share the last name the fake law firm gave me. There were plenty of people they could contact as potential relatives. Even in the foreign country! Meaning it was unlikely I would be a final contact for any long lost relative.

I hope this SNIFF Test tips will help you stay safe online, dear reader!

Have a good day,

from Brian