Identifying Scam and Phishing Emails "What's Up"

When reviewing whether or not an email (or website) is legitimate it is helpful to remember the phrase “What’s Up?”

W- Who is the sender? Does the email address look odd? Do you know this person? If you do not know this person, you should not share information with this person.

H - Hover over links to check the source. Links are often used to trick you. It may look legitimate but the link could be taking you to a malicious site. Watch for strange characters or misspellings in the links.

A - Act Now or Else! Scare Tactics- Phishers want to scare you into doing something or make you think that you have a limited time before you lose something important. Example: “If you do not reset our password in 24 hours, you will lose all your emails.

T - Think before you click. Unless you are absolutely sure of the legitimacy of the request or email, do not click.

S- Spelling. Often phishing emails are riddled with misspellings.

U- Unsolicited. If you do not have a wealthy uncle in Uganda, you are not going to be setup for life by responding to one of these emails. Also, password reset requests will never come with out you first initiating it. The IRS will never contact you through email. Never share your password via a link in an email and/or website that you didn’t initiate first.

P- Personal Information Request. Phishing emails are looking for information. The only way they can get this is by you providing information. Never share information with anyone you are unsure of.

Here are some examples of spam emails:

This is what you see in your inbox. It appears to have come from your coworker saying urgent.

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Here you have an email telling you that someone attempted to log into your office account. There are times when these types of emails can be legitimate so you must always scrutinize the details before clicking on any links.

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When presented with a link like the one in this email, you should always hover over the link to see if the web address is legitimate. As you will see below, while the address says https://account.live.com/pw it actually leads somewhere else.

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While this is just a small example, keeping the phrase "What's Up" in your mind could help keep you and your personal information safe.