Phishing Email Campaigns: How to Detect and Handle

Suppose you receive an email that seems to be from someone you know, especially someone in a leadership position for an organization to which you belong, instructing you to spend your own money on something. In that case, it’s probably a phishing email.

What to Look For in a Phishing Email:

• Is the sender’s email address correct?
• Does the language sound appropriate for that person?
• Is the topic new or something you have already discussed?
• Is the person asking you to spend your money on something you will be reimbursed for later?
• Are they asking you for sensitive information?
• Do they make it seem urgent?
• Do they tell you it is secret and not to tell anyone else (e.g., to buy gift cards for everyone else in the organization to be given to them as gifts)?
• Do they tell you not to call them?
• Do they ask you to send them the numbers on the gift cards?

What to Do:

• Call the person whose email it is supposed to be from to find out if it really is from them
• Have everyone’s email addresses removed from public access (i.e., the organization’s website)
• Immediately contact everyone else in the organization to advise them that they may receive a similar email and that it is a hoax.
• Advise everyone to change their passwords and do the same for access to the organization’s information.

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At Commonwealth Sentinel, we stay focused on cyber security so you can focus on other things.