That's how they get you: faux phishing scams
The company I work for contracts with an outside party, the folks at KnowBe4 to conduct fake phishing attempts on employess.
These annoyed me at first, but then I figured out a mail rule that would send them right to my junk mail folder. Our company, however, then moved to a different system for delivering us the fake phishing attempts, and now I can’t filter them out any more.
Usually I find phishing attempts pretty transparent – but this one almost got me:
- It was sent at 5-something AM. I first saw it at 6-ish AM. I don’t do my best mental work at 6 AM.
- I sure hate to be late on getting my work done.
Tapping on the message, this is what I saw first:
And – yikes. Eight late assignments? Complete these in a few days?!
Luckily I was awake enough to slow my roll and think… what kind of software gives you a warning message that your manager is going to contact you?
Then I realized, uh, I’ve never touched Microsoft Planner.
So I checked the sender …
The fakey domain name finally made it clear.
I’m super glad I didn’t click the link, or I would have had to go through KnowBe4’s remedial don’t-click-links-in-emails training.
Things I re-learned:
- Don’t check my email at 6 AM. (Better yet, maybe don’t check my email?)
- Remember to check sender addresses before clicking on links.
- Don’t use Microsoft products, so you can laugh off common phishing attempts.