7 Red Flags for Identifying Email Scams

email phishing scams

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