If you’re reading this, you may have spotted December’s test phishing email! This email was sent as part of the Secure UD “Take a BITE out of phish!” campaign, a University initiative to raise our community’s awareness about phishing attacks, their consequences, and how to avoid becoming a victim. As part of the campaign, random samples of employees will receive a harmless test phish (like this one).
Let’s break down why this email is so phishy:
- Check the sender. If the “from” address is unfamiliar or not recognizable, take a few extra moments to carefully examine the contents of the email message.
- Check for poor spelling and grammar. Scam emails often contain typo and other errors – which is a big red flag that it probably did not come from a legitimate source. In this case, “administrator” is misspelled in the email address.
- Don’t let them scare you. Cyber criminals may use threats or a false sense of urgency to trick you into acting without thinking. If an email contains a false sense of urgency to do something immediately, something may be phishy.
- Don’t click links within a suspicious email. Hyperlinks that appear legitimate can be a disguised link to a criminal or malicious website. When in doubt, hover your mouse over the text of the hyperlink (you should see the full URL, which will help to show whether it leads to a legitimate website) or better yet, open a browser window and manually type in the hyperlink yourself to prevent it being redirected.
Always exercise caution; if you receive a suspicious request for your personal information, instructions to visit a suspicious website, or see a suspicious attachment, forward it to reportaphish@udel.edu.
And always, Think B4 You Click!