What are the Top Five Signs of Email Phishing?

What is Email Phishing?

Email phishing is a type of cybercrime where attackers send fraudulent emails that appear to be from legitimate sources – such as banks or well-known companies – to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information. This information can include passwords, credit card numbers, or other personal data. The goal is often to gain unauthorized access to accounts or commit identity theft.

Top Five Ways to Recognize an Email Phishing Attempt:

Before clicking on any links in an email or otherwise revealing sensitive data, confirm that the email is from a legitimate address. Here are the top five things to look for:

1. Suspicious Email Address or Domain: Phishing emails often come from addresses that look similar to legitimate ones but have slight variations. For example, instead of @paypal.com, it might be @paypa1.com. Ask yourself if the person that the email is purportedly from would realistically be sending that email.
2. Generic Greetings: Phishing emails might use generic greetings like “Dear Customer” instead of your actual name. Legitimate companies usually personalize their emails.
3. Urgent or Threatening Language: These emails often create a sense of urgency or fear, such as claiming your account will be suspended if you don’t act immediately.
4. Grammar and Spelling Mistakes: Many phishing emails contain noticeable grammar and spelling errors, which are less common in legitimate communications.
5. Suspicious Links or Attachments: Phishing emails often include links that lead to fake websites or attachments that can install malware on your device.

Phishing Example

This is an example of a real phishing email we've recently received. Look at the highlighted portions:

• BENEDICTINE - We will never refer to the university as "Benedictine" (nor in ALL CAPS). Instead, we will always use Benedictine University or BenU.
• "take immediate action" or "within the next 24 hours" - Prompts for urgent or immediate actions are designed to create anxiety and cause the reader to react quickly, without confirming the legitimacy of the email.
• "offers grants and financial aids to both present and past students…"- Poor grammar, incorrect language ("financial aids"), and not relevant to the original statement in the email.
• "Click here" - our web site and email addresses use ben.edu, never benedictine.com. Remember, you can hover your mouse over the link (without clicking on it) and in the status bar at the bottom of your screen you will see where the link is really going. If it's not a recognized URL, it's likely a scam.
• "Verify My Office 365 account" - If we ever need you to verify your account, we will either ask you to come in person to the IT Help Desk or call the IT Help Desk because we will need to check your ID in order to verify who you are.
• "IT COMMUNICATIONS" - Communications from the IT Department typically will be from Support Services (there is not IT COMMUNICATIONS group at Benedictine University) and never spelled out in ALL CAPS. 

And Never Fill Out a Form That Asks for Identifying Information:

• No legitimate organization will ever ask you to divulge your password.
• Asking for both your current school and your previous school is a form of social engineering. Having any of your historical information can aid a scammer with identity theft.

What Should You Do If You Get a Suspicious Email?

If you receive an email and you're not certain that it's legitimate:

1. Do not click on any links in the email nor open any attachments.
2. Use the Report Message button in Outlook. This alerts the Networking and Infrastructure team with Benedictine's IT Department. They will investigate the email and take corrective action.