My uncle the plumber taught me about phishing and it stuck

Last month my uncle came over for dinner and somehow we got on the topic of scam emails. He's a plumber in Cleveland and has zero tech background, but he told me he spots fake bank emails by checking if the sender address has a number in it. He said over 40 of his buddies got hit with that Zelle scam in 2023 and he started checking every sender line. Hearing it from a guy who fixes pipes made it click way more than any tech article I read. Now I check sender domains on my phone too, even for texts. Has anyone else had a non-tech person explain something that finally made it stick?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

fiona_kim972mo ago

My grandma falls for every scam email that hits her inbox, but it was my cousin who finally fixed it for me. He's a mechanic and he explained phishing like checking a car's VIN before you buy it. He said you never trust the paint job alone, you check the hidden numbers to make sure it's really what it claims to be. Now I do that with every link before I tap it, even if the email looks perfect. Something about comparing it to a car made it way easier to remember than any security webinar I sat through.

5

daniel_cooper342mo ago

Didn't think a plumber could teach me anything about scams, but that sender check trick is honestly solid.

1