Phishing and Spam Alerts
What is Phishing?
social media safety
Email Scams: Recognizing them
Over time, phishing attempts have become more sophisticated with increased quality of imitating a genuine email. Be aware of these warning signs:
Signs
- The message is unsolicited and asks you to update, confirm, or reveal personal identity information (e.g., SSN, account numbers, passwords, protected health information).
- The message creates a sense of urgency.
- The message has an unusual “From” address or an unusual “Reply-To” address.
- The (malicious) website URL doesn’t match the name of the institution that it allegedly represents.
- The message is not personalized. Valid messages from banks and other legitimate sources usually refer to you by name.
- The message contains grammatical errors.
Types of E-mail Spam and Phishing
Phishing
Phishing is the term for messages sent to individuals via e-mail or text message with the intent to fool unsuspecting recipients into providing personal information, such as user names, passwords and financial account information. They often employ social engineering tactics by creating messages that appear to be legitimate. These messages can also lure individuals to malware-hosting websites.
Spear Phishing
Spear phishing differs from phishing in that it targets a specific department, division or college, seeking unauthorized access to protected information. These messages allegedly come from IT support staff or other professionals in a position of authority from within the targeted department, division or college. As with phishing, these e-mails will attempt to trick users into divulging personal or financial information, or their credentials, or entice them into clicking on a link that could install malware on the computer.
E-mail Spam
E-mail spam are messages sent to many people, often simultaneously, that either contain web links to Internet websites that host malware or contain executable malware within the message designed to infect the computer when opened. These messages are also called junk e-mail.
Spoofing
Spoofing aims to trick users into taking actions that that aren’t in their best interest. For example, users might be tricked into believing false information or divulging confidential information, access authorization information, passwords, and other information. Spoofing can mean:
- Impersonating a person, organization, agency or server without permission.
- Faking the origin. The messages were allegedly sent from the administrators, but they were actually from intruders trying to steal accounts.
Phishing Examples
Open to view common examples of phishing and spam emails.
Financial Examples
Below are the financial examples.
To: Recipient
Subject: Amazon.com - Your Cancellation (114-685-4526)
Dear Customer,
Your order has been successfully canceled. For your reference, here's a summary of your order:
You just canceled order 114-685-4526 placed on June 21, 2017.
Status: CANCELED
____________________________________________________________________
1 "Wilkes"; 2003, Second Edition
By: Jasen Patterson
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
_____________________________________________________________________
Thank you for visiting Amazon.com!
To: Recipient
Subject: Parking ticket #987111363
You received a parking ticket!
26-141 - Parking of motor car or otherwise obstructing fire lanes shall be forbidden at all times
TrialLaw Court appearance required
Parking ticket number information: PTD987111154
Parking fine
To pay your parking ticket, download your fine and choose one of 2 convenient ways:
1. Online
Pay online by Visa or Mastercard, $2 processing fee.
2. By phone (automated system)
Pay by Visa or Mastercard at (866)562-9742
Best wishes,
Police Department.
Password/Account Reset
| Reconfirm your calstatela Password |
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|
You are required to reconfirm your password on ma*****@calstatela.edu as of 2018/07/23 05:04:42 to avoid email malfunction. You have limited time to make this corrections to avoid calstatela Violation
|
|---|
|
To stop separating items that are identified as clutter, go to Options. |
|---|
Your Account Will Be Blocked!
[email protected]
Your Account will Expire, Wednesday, April 12th/ 2017
If you would like to continue using your Email Address,
[email protected]
Upgrade Your Account Now
You will lose your email address if you do not upgrade your account.
Upgrade is free off charge.
Thanks.
Mail service provider ! ©2017 All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer:
This email and any attachment thereto are confidential and privileged. If you have received it in error, please delete immediately and notify the sender. Do not disclose, copy, circulate or in any way use it. The information contained therein is for the intended address(es) only, if you reply, its at your own risk. Emails are not guaranteed to be secure or error free, the message and any attachment could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, delayed, incomplete or amended. Outlook.Inc does not accept liability for any damage caused by this email or its attachment.
Account Verification
calstatela.edu Server Congestion
Dear username,
calstatela.edu sever is holding (4) incoming messages because this your email [email protected] has not been verified. If you wish to keep using your email, kindly verify your account below.
Review & Verify your account
Note: Move this message to your inbox folder if you are having a problem with the above link.
You may not be able to access your email if ignored, this process takes few minutes only.
Thank you,
calstatela.edu Team
1. A recent change in your personal information. (eg: address, phone)
2. illegal use of your account.
Due to this, to ensure that your email service is not interrupted, we request you to confirm and update your information today by following the link below
VERIFY
Office 365! Mail Product Management2
Dear Customer, Thank you for using our verification system.
Click Here to Verify you are the true owner of this account.
NOTE: Please do not click the link more than once.
Ignorance Of this mail will lead to permanent lock.
Thanks.
Webmail copy;
Documentations/Verification
Your order on Delta.com website is now complete and your credit card has been charged.
Your flight number , seat number and other important details can be found on your ticket, below:
https: //www.delta.com/orders/viewTicketO nline.do?name=jsee&flight_no=NY7354534170
To check your flight status , please visit : http: //www.delta.com/flightinfo/viewFlightStatusSetup
You can do the check-in online, here: https: //www.delta.com/PCCOciWeb/findBy.action
Thank you for flying with us
© 2017 Delta Air Lines, Inc. | Travel may be on other airlines.
Job Examples
Greetings,
Interested in working summer school? There is still time to apply!
We are seeking candidates to apply for a variety of classified positions for summer 2022.
Attached please find the employment opportunities flyer for the following programs:
- Summer School, TK-8, program (June 22 – July 22, 2022)
- High School Summer Term (June 22 – July 22, 2022)
For a list of sites and to apply, visit https://summer.calstatela and sign in with your CALSTATELA email and password (SSO).
Thank you!
I am a staff here at the institution, a professor of Medicine shared a link for an interested student who might be interested in a PAID PART-TIME POSITION job to make up to $650 (USD) weekly, Follow the link below for more info regarding the position -
CLICK HERE
NOTE: THIS IS STRICTLY A WORK-FROM-HOME POSITION.
Work at your convenience as a personal/assistant APPLY HERE at $550 Weekly
Package Examples
Dear Customer,
Your order has been successfully canceled. For your reference, here's a summary of your order:
You just canceled order 114-685-4526 placed on June 21, 2017.
Status: CANCELED
____________________________________________________________________
1 "Wilkes"; 2003, Second Edition
By: Jasen Patterson
Sold by: Amazon.com LLC
_____________________________________________________________________
Thank you for visiting Amazon.com!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Amazon.com
Earth's Biggest Selection
http://www.amazon.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a post-only message. Please do not respond.
Label Number: EI64689072US
Service Type: Express Mail®
Thank you for requesting a Proof of Delivery letter on your shipment.
Your Proof of Delivery letter can be viewed online, by visiting the link below:
https://www.usps.com/ship ping/delive ry/view.do?file=proof_of_delivery&tracking=EI4689072US
You will need Microsoft Office software to view the DOC file.
If you have additional questions on Track & Confirm services and features or if you have difficulties viewing the file, please visit the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section of our Track and Confirm site at http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirmfaqs.htm for more information.
-------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------
Results provided by the U.S. Postal Service.
Your package could not be delivered because our courrier could not find anyone at the destination address.
Service type : Next Day Ground
Package size: Medium
Weight: 12.94 lbs
Date : April 10 2017
Please call the number on the shipping notice we left at your doorstep, to arrange a new delivery.
You can view the delivery notice online, on the USPS website:
https: //tools.usps.com/shipping/tracking.file?id=8077571021 &date=04/10/201
If a new shipment is not arranged in 24 hours, the package will be returned.
Microsoft Word must be installed on your PC.
Copyright 2017 USPS. All Rights Reserved.
Technical Examples
Email account
calstatela.edu Server Congestion
Dear username,
calstatela.edu sever is holding (4) incoming messages because this your email [email protected] has not been verified. If you wish to keep using your email, kindly verify your account below.
Review & Verify your account
Note: Move this message to your inbox folder if you are having a problem with the above link.
You may not be able to access your email if ignored, this process takes few minutes only.
Thank you,
calstatela.edu Team
Docusign
I shared a file with you via Docusign powered by OneDrive.
Please click Here
To view the docusign.Pdf above, Click and login using your email provider.
This is a secure file sharing platform and we protect customers from all sort of unwanted emails.
Thanks!
Your E-mail Needs Extension!!
Due to low E-mail Account quota, further incoming emails with high massage size above 10kb might be discarded until your email quota has been extended.
You have used 95% MB of 5G of your email account quota.
We advise you to Extend your account immediately, this service is completely free!
Click Here To Upgrade For Free To Extend your email account Quota Limits on mail Servers; this may cause your mailbox to be impaired or you may no longer receive emails with attachment.
Attention: Failure to do this will lead to Email Storage abuse and account termination. Once extension is complete, your email account will work effectively.
Phishing Email Dos and Don’ts
DO'S
- DO call a company that you received a suspicious email from to see if it is legitimate, but DO NOT use the phone number contained in the email. Check a recent statement from the company to get a legitimate phone number.
- DO look for a digital signature/certificate as another level of assurance that senders are legitimate. Digitally signed messages will have a special image/icon at the subject.
- DO adjust your spam filters to protect against unwanted spam.
- DO use common sense. If you have any doubts, DON’T respond. Contact the ITS Help Desk if you have any questions.
DON’TS
- DON’T open email that you have any suspicion may not be legitimate. If it is legitimate and the individual trying to contact you really needs to, they will try other means.
- DON’T ever send credit card or other sensitive information via email.
- DON’T click the link. Instead, phone the company or conduct an Internet search for the company’s true web address.
- DON’T open email or attachments from unknown sources. Many viruses arrive as executable files that are harmless until you start running them.
What should I do?
Phishing emails are a scary thing to receive. Here are a few things you could do:
Report it to your email provider
If your email account is provided by Google or Microsoft, their clients have a reporting feature. as shown below:
If using Outlook App:
Report it to the Government Agency
Cyber Security & Infrastructure Security Agency helps individuals becoming victims of phishing scams by gathered phishing email messages and website addresses by simply forwarding them the emaiil to them.
Forward to: [email protected]
Mark it as scam/junk
You can mark the email sender as a scam or as a junk, your email provider will block off the sender address and move it to the junk list.
Delete the email
If the email you recieved is a scam or a phishing email. Simply delete the email after you report the email.
What if I clicked on the phishing link?
Do not panic, we recommend all of the following action to limit any risks:
- Change password
- Run AnitVirus scanner
- Use two-factor authentication
- Back-up your files
- Check for transactions
