Phishing is an email scam that seeks to gain private information. These emails are received by most people and are not difficult to detect if one takes the time to read before following an invitation to click in response. The following is a typical example with clues that it is a phishing attack.
The sender's email address is usually a strong clue. This is obviously not from Apple. Also a real name can be expected rather than Dear Client, particularly when the email address displays a real name. Official emails from legitimate organisations are polite, non-threatening, never ask for you to log in from an email. They might ask you to log in (in the usual way) but not from an email link because that can easily divert you to a fake address. If you have two step authentication active for important sites then you are better protected. (See Security label)
The Australian government runs a site with advice: scamwatch.gov.au
Spam
Spam is unwanted email and online messages, usually advertising. Most browsers now include an Ad Blocker extension. You can check your browser settings (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer etc) to ensure that AdBlock or similar is installed.
These AdBlockers are wrecking havoc with legitimate advertising that pays for many sites and you sometimes get a message saying "You appear to be running an Ad Blocker..." and asking you to disable it for this site switch if you want to proceed and read our information.
Email software has a button to activate to mark emails as Spam. If you use this it helps block these emails. Sometimes it blocks a legitimate email, so you need to look in the Spam folder if an expected email has not arrived.
Legitimate sites have an Unsubscribe button for subscription emails. If this is difficult to find, or activate, probably best to mark the site as Spam.
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