🦈 Digital Predators are Circling Your Inbox
While we’re glued to the screen watching great whites circle their prey on Discovery Channel’s Shark Week programs, I want to remind you that digital predators are circling your inbox right now.
Scammers don’t care how smart or successful you are. In fact, the more visibility you gain, the bigger a target you become.
🐠 Let’s talk phishing emails and how to spot them, before you take the bait.
🎣 What is Phishing, Really?
Phishing emails are fake messages that pretend to be from someone you trust: your bank, your email provider, a client or even your own assistant.
They use urgency to get you to click, panic or hand over confidential or sensitive information.
Examples:
“🚨 Urgent: Your account has been locked”
“📦 Package delivery failed—click to reschedule”
“💸 Payment request from your client”
They look real.
They feel urgent.
But they are bait.
🦈 Why It Works (And How to Outsmart It)
Scammers know we’re overwhelmed. They hope we’ll click before we think.
Here’s how to stay safe:
✅ Check the real sender. Don’t trust the display name—look at the full email address.
✅ Never click in a panic. Go directly to the website instead.
✅ Use multi-factor authentication. It’s your life vest if your password gets stolen.
✅ Pause before acting. Scammers rely on fear. Your best defense is a deep breath and a second look.
Want to Swim Smarter?
I’ve put together a free guide just for women like us:
“Top 10 Online Scams Targeting Women 50+”
It’s quick, clear, and gives you the confidence you need to see through email scams.
Know someone who’d appreciate this information? Forward this newsletter and help us grow everyone’s digital confidence!
🦄 Who is Suecurity?
Susan Richards aka Sue-curity
🌉 Background: Over 30 years in information technology with a passion for keeping people and data secure.
👑 Achievement: Hosts a weekly HITRUST Secrets discussion and nerds out about security topics.
☕ Quirk: An American patriot through and through, she still enjoys Irish breakfast tea in the mornings!
Digital Trailblazers- Business Growth Podcast
I had the pleasure of joining the Digital Trailblazers Business Growth podcast to talk about how digital creators and entrepreneurs can protect their content, income and reputation online.
Host Leah Rae Getts and I explored practical ways to avoid common traps and create a business that is not only thriving, but secure.
It’s a great listen if you are growing your presence online and want to do it safely.
🎙️Apple Podcast - Link to the Episode
🎙️Spotify - Link to the Episode
🎆 Did You Know? The first Shark Week program was Caged in Fear, a 1988 documentary co-written and produced by Rodney Fox, a shark attack survivor.
The very first Shark Week on Discovery Channel kicked off with a short film about abalone divers who were testing out a new motorized cage in South Australia. The film, Caged In Fear, showed the cage being lowered, empty, into the water to test it out, and the divers drawing lots to see who would be the first human to test it out.
Be safe,
