If you’re reading this, you may have spotted March’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. Each month, a random sample of employees will receive a harmless test phish like this one:
Let’s find out what makes this email so phishy:
- Look out for missing details. Lack of personal details within the email, such as your name or the name of the company, is suspicious. What is the name of this pizza restaurant and where is it located? Don’t be blinded by a special offer or sale, pay attention to the little things!
- Check for poor spelling and grammar. Scam emails often contain typos and other errors — which is a big red flag that it probably did not come from a legitimate source. In this email, “our” is misspelled as “are”.
- Don’t click links within a suspicious e-mail. Links 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 re-directed.
- 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. This email comes from “coupon@pizzalife.club”, does that sound like any local restaurant you know?
Always exercise caution; if you receive a suspicious request for your payment information, instructions to visit a suspicious website, or see a suspicious attachment, forward it to reportaphish@udel.edu.
And always, Think B4 You Click!