By focusing on providing the best shipping experience possible, HaulMatch has earned a trusted brand name. Unfortunately, dishonest people sometimes try to use the HaulMatch brand to scam and defraud others. Here are a few common scams, and ways that you can avoid and report them below.

Most email scams rely on the recipient not identifying it as fraudulent and instead believing it to be a genuine and honest correspondence. The tactics that con artists use to trick people into trusting an email are becoming increasingly devious and subtle. Here are five tips that will help you avoid becoming a victim of a scam email. If you know what to look for, it’s always possible to determine the legitimacy of an email before it can do any harm to you or your computer.

The best and most efficient method of verifying an email’s authenticity is to verify the sender. However, it’s not always as simple as it sounds, as they can edit the subject line and the email address themselves. Normally, hovering the cursor over the sender’s display name or subject line will reveal the email address. Pay attention to the email address! Scammers often make their emails look legitimate by substituting an “m” with an “rn”, a lower case “L” with the number “1” or a “.com” email with “.co”.

Many scammers will automate the creation of fake accounts and therefore the names will be obviously spurious. If the email address consists of a collection of random characters, it’s probably bogus. However, if the address seems plausible, you may need to take further steps to verify its validity. To do this, simply open a new tab and Google the email address and the name of the sender. If they don’t match up, send the email straight to your spam folder and flag it as potentially harmful.

Most fraudulent emails are peppered with spelling mistakes and grammatical inconsistencies. This is by design. Con artists believe that anyone who notices blatant spelling mistakes is less likely to fall for a scam; they intentionally write poorly copy to weed out less-susceptible recipients. Scan the content of the email and delete it if there is more than one simple mistake.

If you’re not confident in your ability to spot spelling and grammar errors, download apps or browser extensions to do it for you. There are many apps that will automatically scan every piece of text on your browser and underline any errors in red; Google Docs is a great, free option.

Legitimate correspondence from trusted sources will always contain contact information. Look to the bottom of the page to see if there is any identifying information available. If there isn’t, be immediately distrustful of the email content. If the contact information is clearly displayed, it still might not be a legitimate email.

Check the validity of any contact information available to you. Simply Googling the company is normally enough to cross reference the details provided. If you’re still unsure, find the brand’s homepage and contact them through a different, verifiable, source: ask them whether they sent the email. Most companies will be aware of current phishing scams using their name, so they will be able to quickly provide you with answers. Just make sure to use the contact information provided on the company website and not on the potentially suspicious email.

A common theme that all scam emails share is that they will require something of you. If you receive an email that simply provides information without asking you to do anything, it is probably from a legitimate source. However, if you receive one that asks you to follow a link or reply with certain information, it may be a scam.

Don’t follow any links contained in unsolicited emails and don’t, under any circumstances, give out personal information. Legitimate businesses will never require you to provide identifying details via email. Any email that does should not be trusted.

On top of inappropriate requests, many scam emails will impose a time constraint on the supposedly required action. Any email that claims to require a response within a specific time limit should provoke suspicion. Pressure tactics are an aggressive marketing tool used to limit the time a person has to think things through. Normally, this is to prevent the victim from having time to work out the ruse. Any sort of ultimatum or arbitrary constraint should ring alarm bells.

Specific scam emails are always evolving, but the general tactics used are generally consistent. If you know what tactics they deploy, you’ll know what to avoid. Use these five techniques to assess each email you receive to prevent yourself from falling victim to email scammers.