How to Recognize a Phishing Email

You may fall for a phishing email at some point. Hopefully, it will be one of our training messages and not a real scam if it does happen. If you do fall for a training email, take the time to read through the material that explains why that message was a phishing attack. Our phishing simulations aim to inform you of the tactics and tricks used to steal your information and are completely harmless. The training module will prepare you to deal with messages you might receive like this in the future.

Scammers are getting more clever with their attempts to steal your account numbers, passwords, and personal information. The best defense? It isn't a spam filter, antivirus software, or a firewall - it's you! Knowing how to recognize and act on a phishing email can save you the headache and hassle of your personal information being compromised. And in an environment like a school district, it can protect entire systems with thousands of private records from being compromised.

Common Giveaways

Phishing emails will often trick you into acting - either clicking on a link or opening an attachment, and some can even ask you to enter data directly in the message.  

• Do you recognize the sender? Not just the name, but look at the message details - does the email address in the message details match the sender's name and organization?
• Does the subject indicate a problem or try to create a sense of urgency?
• Does the email urge you to click on a link or open an attachment to perform whatever action is being asked?
• Is their obvious grammatical or speelling errers in the message!

A Deeper Dive

• Is the message authenticated? Look under the message details to see if the message is both mailed-by and signed-by a legitimate domain like amazon.com or google.com. In many cases, the mailed-by and signed-by domains will be the same, but this isn't always the case. If you see a question mark next to the sender's name, the message has not been authenticated; be careful to respond to or click any links on messages like this.
• Review the URL hiding behind the links. If you hover over a link or button, most browsers will show the URL behind that link at the bottom of the screen. Does the URL at the bottom of your browser match the sender's domain? If you were looking at an email from Amazon but hovering over a link in the email reveals an address like http://www[dot]malware[dot]com, then you probably aren't looking at a message from Amazon.
• Is the linked URL secure? Many phishing attacks will direct you to insecure websites. How do you tell the difference? The first part of a URL gives you the answer; secure websites that provide an encrypted connection begin with https:// instead of http://. The "s" literally stands for secure - Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure. Websites that start with https:// aren't necessarily all safe, but if you don't see this in an already questionable email, it's a good indicator that something isn't right.

A Hint for Those Who Made it This Far