---
title: Staying Safe From Phishing and Spear-Phishing - Premier IT Minnesota
description: Phishing has been around since 1996. Today’s users are far too sophisticated to fall for a request to click an infected email attachment and then forward it to everyone they know. Or are they?
image: https://www.premieritmn.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_1020493849.jpg
---

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# Staying Safe From Phishing and Spear-Phishing

![](https://www.premieritmn.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/shutterstock_1020493849.jpg)

Do you know how to protect yourself against digital scams?

Phishing – the practice of using email lures to fish for passwords, credit card numbers, and other personal information from a sea of users – has been around since 1996.

Still, most people were not aware of the problem for five years until the Love Bug struck about 50 million computers. The result: removal of the infection and recovery of files at a cost of about $10 billion.

That was then … this is now. Today’s users are far too sophisticated to fall for a request to click an infected email attachment and then forward it to everyone they know. Or are they?

You have probably learned you aren’t supposed to click attachments or text messages from addresses you do not recognize.

► But do you know how to hover over a URL to be sure it comes from a credible sender?  
► Be wary of emails from foreign countries (.ca for Canada, .fr from France, .ru from Russia, etc.)  
► Do you keep an eye out for attachments which are .ZIP or .PDF, or executable files that end in .EXE? These Trojan horses can wreak havoc in your system!

Be watchful and as always, contact us at [Premier IT](https://www.linkedin.com/company/premieritmn/) with any questions. We welcome your call at 763.453.6800.

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