This may read as a self-congratulatory post but I simply want to illustrate that we do practise what we preach.
I received the following email today which purported to come from a domain registration company.
Regular readers of our site will know that I am instantly suspicious of a mail with the salutation “Dear customer” rather than the use of my contact details. The mail is also devoid of any reference to the services we use – I needed to verify whether this was genuine. Rather than use any contact link or number contained within the email, I headed to my browser and accessed the site of the provider, located a suitable contact number and contacted them by phone.
And of course I found out that……..well, as it happens, this mail was genuine. This may not be the result we were expecting but, for the sake of 5 extra minutes to check, I was able to verify the validity of an email either way and then act upon the content.
Remember, be sceptical, be vigilant and verify the content of an email using independent means before acting. The extra few minutes could save hours or even days of downtime, avoiding disruption and other financial loss.