This morning as I sifted through the mountain of spammy PR emails that greet me every morning, I noticed one email that had the subject line “Secure Document from X.” (X = person whose name I didn’t recognize). I recently bought a new home so I have had a lot of secure attachments from my realtor, the bank, and insurance company lately. But this secure attachment didn’t seem right. See my screenshot and explanation below.
Clues that the attachment is a phishing attempt/ scam:
1. The body of the email just said “see attachment.” I, of course, didn’t open the attachment. I am not inclined to open random attachments from people I don’t know.
2. I was BCC’d on the email. No one sending me a legitimate attachment isn’t going to BCC it to me.
Obviously, I reported this email at a spam/ phishing attempt and then I promptly deleted it.
On a related note, Common Craft offers a great video that explains phishing scams and how to recognize them.
Disclosure: I have an in-kind relationship with Common Craft.
