If you’re reading this, you may have spotted June’s phishing test email! As always, you should forward this, or any other suspicious or questionable email, to reportaphish@udel.edu. Even if you click on a phishing link, always report the message. When it’s a UD challenge, we increase our reporting rate and gain greater understanding of our community’s awareness about phishing. When it’s a real phish, we can help reduce or prevent the consequences to you and the UD community.
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:
1. Always examine the sender’s email address. If the “from” address is unfamiliar, take a few extra moments to examine the contents of the email.
2. Do not be blinded by official names or logos. Sophisticated cybercriminals will often use images and branding from a company or university’s website to make their emails appear official.
3. Do not click links within a suspicious email. Hyperlinks that appear legitimate can be disguised as links to a criminal or malicious website. When in doubt, hover your mouse over the hyperlink’s text (you should see the full URL, which will help show whether it leads to a legitimate website). Or better yet, open a browser window and manually type the URL yourself to prevent it from being redirected. To inspect a link when using a mobile device, you can tap and hold the link to see the actual URL.
Phishing is a tactic used by cybercriminals that typically consists of sending emails claiming to be from a legitimate company or person. Their goal is to get you to surrender sensitive information such as credit cards, usernames, passwords, or installing malware by inviting you to click on links in emails and messages.
Scam Messages are usually sent by fraudsters under false identities or by impersonating legitimate people. Their goals range from trying to steal your money and your identity to collecting personal information or images that can be used for extortion.