If you’re reading this, you may have spotted September’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 examine what makes this email phishy:
- Check the sender. If the “from” address is unfamiliar, cake a few extra moments to examine the contents of the email. In this case, the email is sent from an “@speedyship.net” and not any recognizable shipping company.
- Check the branding. Is this a brand or logo that you recognize? This email has generic branding and a logo that imitates the official UPS logo. Some hackers can create official-looking logos or branding that could trick you into thinking the email comes from a legitimate source.
- Look out for grammar and spelling errors. Scam emails often contain typos and other errors, which are red flags indicating that the email probably didn’t come from a legitimate source. For example, a simple word, “order,” is misspelled as “oder” in this email.
- Verify the source. Use a separate method, like a separate search engine, to look up the website or phone number. Even though a link or phone number in an email may look like the real deal, scammers can hide the true destination.
- Don’t click links within a suspicious e-mail. Links in a suspicious email may take you 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).
Always exercise caution; if you receive a suspicious request for your personal information, instructions to visit a suspicious website, or download a suspicious attachment, forward it to reportaphish@udel.edu.
And as always, Think B4 U Click!