Each day, the average office worker receives 121 emails and sends out approximately 40, according to Statistics compiled by Radicati Group. If you manage to get through those emails you probably have taken a considerable chunk of time out of your work day to sort, organize, and respond to said emails. It is no wonder why so many of us have a love-hate relationship with this part of business life.
Since email is a part of life that is probably not going away anytime soon, it is best that business leaders and employees begin to recognize the signs that an email is malicious and may be a phishing scam in disguise.
What is a Phishing Scam?
Simply put, a phishing scam is an email that may appear to be from a legitimate company asking for a reader to provide sensitive information when in reality it is a cybercriminal who is hoping to gain access to your account credentials, banking information, social security number, or other sensitive data.
The term ’phishing’ is a spin on the word fishing because criminals are dangling a fake ’lure’ to gather that information much like a fisherman dangles a piece of bait to catch a fish. Sadly, the bite from a cybercriminal could mean the loss of data and open access to your information, which can make you vulnerable.
What are the Signs of a Phishing Scam?
According to a Verizon Data Breach Report, 95% of successful cyber attacks begin with a phishing scam. Knowing how to maintain email security at the user-level will keep you and your company safe. Here are several signs that your email may not be what it claims to be.
A Sense of Urgency:
Don’t be fooled by emails that have a subject line that reads, Urgent, Action Needed, or even Open Now! Be suspicious of opening emails that are rushing you or making you feel like something inside is time sensitive. This should raise an immediate red flag.
Strange Sender Address:
Take a close look at who the sender is before you open any emails. Ask yourself if you trust the sender and confirm that the sender is legitimate. For example, does your credit card company usually send you emails from a certain address and this one is slightly different? Call the sender by looking up their number on a verifiable website or document to confirm that it is indeed who the email says they are. Think before you open this big red flag!
Suspicious Links:
Just like you shouldn’t open an email that looks like the subject line is rushing you or the origination is odd, don’t click on unfamiliar links or attachments. Hover over links before clicking, and double check that the destination of the link is a trustworthy site as well. When in doubt, just don’t click!
Spelling or Grammatical Errors:
Everyone makes spelling mistakes and the occasional typos, but professional companies, especially those who are dealing with finance or exchanges of money, usually have multiple layers of editors who would not let a spelling or grammatical error slip by. Be very wary of this red flag on your email subject lines.
Personal Requests:
Let’s say you have opened an email and now you notice that it is requesting personal information or data that could compromise you or your business such as a credit card number, username, password, or social security number. Contact the IT department to report the incident.
How often do you come upon questionable emails? Think before you click. If you need help identifying phishing scam emails or training for your staff contact M&H Consulting at 1-866-964-8324 or visit our website.
Categorised in: Computer Support, email, IT Consulting Services, Security, virus