Phishing Attempts: Recognize the Red Flags

• Are you available for a quick task?
• Got a minute?
• Are you here?
• Are you in the office?
• Can you help me?

These emails typically appear to come from your manager or company president, are brief and project urgency. They all want to start a conversation to play out their ruse.

Scam Indicators

1. The sender’s name is accurate, but the actual email address is not a company email.
2. Doesn’t your boss have your cell?
3. Urgency – Hurry up and respond because I’m your boss and this needs to be done ASAP.
4. The signature block may not be the one you are used to seeing. However, the slightly more sophisticated cyber-criminals may cut and paste the spoofed sender’s actual signature block.

The Con Explained: How Gift-Card Phishing Scams Work

The Con Explained: How Gift-Card Phishing Scams Work

Scammers use phishing emails to trick victims into responding quickly without thinking. They create a false sense of urgency — claiming something is critical or time-sensitive — and often switch to text messages because they’re “in a meeting.” This tactic keeps the pressure on while making their story sound legitimate.

Next comes the setup: the scammer asks you to buy gift cards (Amazon, Apple, Visa, etc.) and send the numbers or photos immediately. Once they have those codes, your money is gone — and nearly impossible to recover.

While most of these phishing attempts don’t include malware, some may contain links to fake login pages that steal your email address and password. Always verify unexpected requests, even if they appear to come from your boss or a familiar contact.

Your Defense

Your Phishing Defense

1. Slow down, think it through. If it seems strange to you, it probably is.
2. Contact the purported sender with information directly from your contacts, call her cell, or walk over to her office.
3. Don’t respond to the original email, or if you get as far as texting, to that number.
4. Contact your help desk

In the spectrum of phishing emails, this is a low-budget attack. If they send out enough, someone will bite and the cyber thieves will have earned their pay. Don’t become a victim.

Slingshot Information System provides multiple layers of cyber security protections from firewalls and email filtering, to web filtering and end point detection and response services. Contact us today to schedule a free network assessment. Let Slingshot be your North Shore Technical Support resource.