Because of COVID-19, we have seen an increase in cyber crimes.  The holidays are here which is a perfect time for cyber criminals.  It’s a perfect time because more people are working from home using their personal electronic devices and shopping online.  Every day precautions should be made to help minimize cyber crimes.

A recent example I’ve seen myself is with an email from a well known bank I received.  The email wanted me to log in, view documents, or visit their site.  I was suspicious.  A simple procedure I used is to check the email header and look for the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) or Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) email verification.  This validates the domain name identity that is associated with the message through cryptographic authentication.  This is how a DKIM looks. 

Typically you’re going to want to make sure the DKIM “d=XXX” matches whoever sent it to you especially if it’s coming from somebody important like a financial institution, medical health, or insurance.  Things like food or events may have mismatched DKIM headers.  Here’s a sample from Lucilles BBQ from the Gmail app.  Gmail has a nice and simple “View Security Detail” feature for each email so that you can visually see the security details easily.  FBMTA.com is Fishbowl which is a restaurant marketing software platform. 

I also put a sample of TreveriCapital email header below.

If everything looks fine but you’re still suspicious, you can always call whoever sent it to you and ask if they have any records of sending you anything.  Most companies will have a contact relationship manager (CRM) with client correspondence details of you. 

These simple steps can help minimize future cyber criminal problems.