How to Spot Fake Emails: A Creator’s Quick Guide

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Earlier today in one of the groups I’m part of, someone shared an email they had received that claimed to be from YouTube. As I was reading through the thread, I realized it might be helpful to share a few things I’ve learned over the years about how to tell if an email is genuine or fake.

With over 30 years of running different companies in the IT field — dealing with email systems and learning more than I ever wanted to about how scammers and hackers operate — I thought I’d put together this short post with some tools and resources that can help you spot a fake.

🔍 THE BASICS

When you send or receive an email, there’s a lot more going on “under the hood” than just what shows up in your inbox. Every email actually carries with it a kind of hidden paper trail called headers.

Headers aren’t something most people ever look at, but they’re one of the most important tools you can use to figure out if a message is genuine or not. That’s because they record the behind-the-scenes details of where the email really came from and who authorized it along the way.

The tricky part is that scammers can make the visible “From” line look convincing — they can make it say YouTube, PayPal, or any other company. But the headers tell the fuller story. If you know how to read them, you can see past the surface and get clues about whether an email is trustworthy or not.

📨 FROM AND REPLY-TO

The first and most basic thing to look at is the actual sending address. On the surface, the “From” line in your inbox might say something like YouTube Support or PayPal Security, but that’s just a label — it can be faked. What really matters is the domain part of the address, the part that comes after the “@” symbol.

For example, if the message says it’s from YouTube, you should see it coming from something like @youtube.com or @google.com. If instead it shows up as @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, or something that just looks similar — like youtube-security.com — that’s a red flag. Scammers often register domains that look close enough to the real thing to fool people who aren’t looking too closely.

The next clue is what’s called the “Reply-To” field. This tells your email where to send a response if you hit reply. A lot of scam emails will show a convincing “From” address, but if you dig into the header, you’ll see that the “Reply-To” is some unrelated Gmail, Yahoo, or strange domain. That mismatch is usually a dead giveaway that the sender isn’t who they say they are.

🖊️ SIGNED-BY AND MAILED-BY

Another useful clue that often gets overlooked is the “signed-by” or “mailed-by” line. If you’re using Gmail, you can usually find this by opening the message, clicking the little dropdown next to the sender’s name, or selecting “Show Original.”

What this line shows you is who actually sent and authenticated the email. For a legitimate message from YouTube, for example, you’d expect to see it say something like youtube.com or google.com. For PayPal, you’d want to see paypal.com. If instead you see something odd — like mailer-service.ru or some totally unrelated website — that’s a strong sign the email isn’t genuine.

Sometimes legitimate companies do use third-party mail services (for newsletters or bulk updates), so an unfamiliar domain doesn’t automatically mean it’s a scam. But if the email is claiming to be from a big name company and the “signed-by” doesn’t match that company, that should raise a red flag and make you think twice before clicking any links.

✅ AUTHENTICATION CHECKS

The last of the basics I’ll mention are the simple authentication checks that most modern email systems run in the background. You don’t need to know all the technical details, but here are the names you’ll often see: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Think of these as security stamps that tell your email program, “Yes, this message really came from the place it claims to.” When you look at the headers, or use the free tool I’ll share later, these will usually show up with a simple result: PASS or FAIL.

If an email is claiming to be from a big company like YouTube, Google, PayPal, or Microsoft, you should expect those checks to say PASS. If you see a FAIL, that’s a red flag. It doesn’t guarantee the email is a scam, but it’s enough to make you stop and double-check before trusting it.

The key thing to remember is this: scammers can make the body of an email look perfect, but these behind-the-scenes checks are much harder to fake. Taking a quick glance at them gives you another layer of confidence in whether the message is legit or not.

🛠️ RESOURCES THAT CAN HELP

Now, if all of this sounds a little overwhelming, the good news is you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. There is a free tool you can use where you can just copy and paste the email headers, and they’ll break it down for you.

The tool called the MXToolbox Email Header Analyzer (https://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx

). You simply paste in the headers, and it shows you the path the email took, along with whether those SPF, DKIM, and DMARC checks passed or failed.

If you’re not sure how to find the headers in the first place, MXToolbox also has a great step-by-step article called How To Get Email Headers (https://mxtoolbox.com/Public/Content/EmailHeaders/

). That guide walks you through where to look depending on which email program you’re using.

The point of using this tool isn’t to turn you into a security expert — it’s just to give you a way to peek behind the curtain without needing to decode raw headers line by line.

⚡ QUICK RULES OF THUMB

At the end of the day, you don’t need to memorize all the technical details to keep yourself safe. A few quick rules of thumb will catch most of the fake emails you’ll ever run into:

• If the “From” domain looks off — maybe it has extra words, strange spelling, or doesn’t exactly match the company — it’s probably fake.

• If the “Reply-To” address doesn’t match the sender, that’s another strong sign it’s not real.

• If the “signed-by” line or the SPF/DKIM/DMARC checks show a fail, that’s a warning flag you shouldn’t ignore.

• If anything feels off in the message itself — sloppy spelling, bad grammar, or wording that doesn’t sound right — slow down. Big companies proofread their emails carefully.

• Be cautious with links. A fake email will often include a button or link that looks real but actually leads to a fake login page. Instead of clicking, type the company’s website directly into your browser.

• Don’t download unexpected attachments. PDFs, ZIPs, or Word docs from unknown senders are often hiding malware.

• Watch out for scare tactics. Messages that scream “ACT NOW” or “YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE DELETED” are almost always scams. Real companies don’t try to panic you into clicking.

• And most importantly: trust your gut. If something doesn’t feel right, it’s worth double-checking. No email is so urgent that it’s worth risking your account or your computer.

🌐 THE BIG PICTURE

When you put all of this together, the big picture is pretty simple: most of the time, just checking the From address, the Reply-To, and using a little common sense will keep you safe. If you take a quick look at the headers with the tool I mentioned, you can add another layer of confidence — but you don’t have to be an expert to spot the majority of scams.

Scammers count on people moving too fast or not paying attention. Slowing down and checking just a couple of details makes you much harder to fool.

And if you really want to go deeper into this topic, there’s a video I’ve watched before that I found helpful: “How to Spot Any Spoofed & Fake Email (Ultimate Guide)” by ThioJoe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF1bIT1ym4g

). It’s definitely more on the technical or “geeky” side, but if you’re curious and want to learn how all of this works under the hood, it’s worth the watch.

🙌 CLOSING THOUGHTS

I’m not sharing any of this as an “expert,” just from years of hands-on experience in business and IT where I’ve had to teach others to spot these things the hard way. My hope is that this gives you a few practical steps and a bit more confidence the next time an email makes you pause.

As creators and business owners, we have enough to worry about without falling for scams. Stay alert, protect your accounts, and remember — slowing down and checking the details is your best defense.

And if you’re ever unsure, don’t go it alone. Ask questions, share what you’re seeing, and lean on the community. Together we can help keep each other safe.

Hope This Helps!

-George

#TheHomeWorkDad

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