How to protect yourself from email phishing scam attempts

Phishing emails are sent from criminals in an attempt to glean your identifying information to commit identity fraud, gather your financial information, and a whole host of other unsavory business. These criminals will attempt to fool you by disguising themselves as a trusted source, such as A2 Hosting. Phishing emails will often encourage you to take some sort of action on your hosting account like update your address or credit card number. Follow our phishing scam protection tips below to keep your information safe!

Phishing Scam Protection: How To Tell If An Email Is Legitimate

Phishing emails typically have links to sophisticated pages posing as legitimate site pages. These pages will usually pose as portals where you would supply sensitive information such as the official login page of A2 Hosting. However, these pages will instead send any and all information you have supplied on the page (such as your username and password) to those perpetrating the scam. 

As frustrating as dealing with phishing attempts can be, it’s fortunately easy to verify legitimate attempts from those made by with nefarious intentions. Check out the tips below if you’re wondering whether or not you’ve received a legitimate email from A2 Hosting:

• Any email requesting that you take action on an account or update user information will be accompanied by a request that you submit a ticket or call us if you have any questions.
• Anytime you receive an email requesting that you log into your account, do not click any login links included in the email. Instead, visit My A2 Hosting directly and log into your account from there. This tip can be used to protect yourself from any online phishing scam, not just A2 Hosting.
• Never submit confidential information in a form embedded within an email message.
• Before clicking any link within an email, hover your cursor over the link to verify that the destination URL correlates to the destination you’re expecting.The page that will open if you click on the link should appear on the mouse hover or on the bottom of the window. The link should match the description provided but if you are dealing with a phishing email, you will notice the link shown in the mouseover is different:

  

   

• A2 Hosting will never ask you to provide your password, credit card number, or any other personal information directly through email.
• A2 Hosting will only ever email the address that you have provided in your A2 Portal. Check which address you have received correspondence on.
• If we ever do request information or action from you, we will do so within our support ticket system. The most secure way to reply to us is to go directly to My A2 Hosting, log in, and submit your reply directly on our website.

How Can I Keep My Login Information Secure?

You can double check that you are logging into the correct My A2 Hosting account by ensuring that you see the locked padlock validation icon in your browser bar when visiting My A2 Hosting. You can click on this bar to see the connection details that A2 Hosting’s credentials have been verified:

If the credentials aren’t verified do not submit your login credentials on the page.

What Can I Do If I’m Still Unsure Of An Email?

If you’re ever in doubt, contact us! A2 Hosting’s staff is available day or night to answer your questions, and this certainly includes account security questions as well as phishing scam protection. By following the tips listed above, you can keep your account safe. However, if you are still unsure about the legitimacy of an email that you have received, please feel free to contact our support team for verification.