As email phishing scams become more sophisticated, it is important for businesses to learn how to better recognize phishing efforts and prevent these attacks from happening. Here are 7 red flags to look out for in emails:
1) From
• You do not recognize the sender’s email address and it is not someone you regularly communicate with
• The sender is from outside the organization and has no relation to your job
• You do not have past communications with the sender
• Emails that have hyperlinks or attachments from an unknown sender
• The domain of the sender looks suspicious
2) To
• You were CC’d on an email with other people but you do not recognize the other recipients
• You received an unusual email that was sent to a random group of people at your organization (i.e. employees whose first names start with the same letter)
3) Date and Time
• The email was sent at an unusual time outside of regular business hours
4) Subject
• The subject line is irrelevant and is different from the email message content
5) Content
• The sender is asking for you to click on a link or open an attachment
• The email is unusual and contains bad grammar or spelling errors
• You have an uncomfortable gut feeling about the sender’s request in the email
6) Attachments
• You were not expecting the attachment or it has no relation to the email
• There are attachments that look potentially dangerous. The only safe file to click on in this case is a .TXT file
7) Hyperlinks
• When you hover your mouse over the hyperlink and the link shown is for a different website
• The hyperlink has a misspelling of a known website
• The email only contains long hyperlinks without any additional information
