Awareness
Seven signs a message is a scam
Modern phishing is well written and well designed. These are the patterns that still give it away.
Dico.tel Academy · June 30, 2026 · 4 min read
The old advice — look for bad spelling — stopped working years ago. Today's scams are cleanly designed and grammatically perfect. What hasn't changed is the psychology behind them.
The patterns
- —Urgency: something bad happens unless you act now
- —Authority: a bank, tax office or executive you don't want to question
- —An unexpected channel: your bank texting a link, not calling
- —A request that bypasses normal process
- —A payment detail that has 'changed'
- —A domain that is almost right, but not quite
- —Secrecy: don't mention this to anyone else
The one habit worth building
Never act inside the message. Close it, and reach the organisation through a route you already trust — the app on your phone, or the number on the back of your card. That single habit defeats the overwhelming majority of scams.
Keep reading
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One protects your devices in real time. The other puts human analysts behind your accounts. Here's how to choose — or why you might want both.
Why your email address is the real target
Attackers rarely want your inbox. They want the password resets it unlocks. A secured personal mailbox changes the maths.
Protecting a household, not just a person
Attackers target the least protected person in a home and work inwards. Household thinking closes that gap.