Two emails, one trap
Sam gets an email: "Your bank account is locked. Click now." Sam deletes it. It looks like a message sent to thousands of people.
Then Sam's manager gets an email from the "finance director" with her own name in it. It asks for a bank transfer today.
Which one is more dangerous? Today you learn to spot both.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can list the signs of a fake email and say why one aimed at a single person is harder to spot.
Key words
| Word | What it means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Phishing | a fake message sent to many people to trick them | |
| Spear phishing | a fake message aimed at one person or a small group | |
| Domain | the part of an email address after the @ | oakfield-bank.example |
| Spoofed | made to look as if it came from somebody else | |
| Attachment | a file sent with an email | |
| Urgency | a push to act at once, before you can think | |
| Malware | software made to cause harm |
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Starter
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3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
Phishing is a net cast wide
The core lessons on tricking people explain what phishing is. Here you learn to spot it.
A phishing message goes to a very large number of people. The attacker hopes a few will reply, click or open a file. The message tries to get private details, or to put harmful software on a device.
Five signs of a phishing email
| Sign | What it looks like | What you check |
|---|---|---|
| Public or spoofed address | A bank writes from @freemail.example, or the name looks right but the address is not | Read the full address, not only the name |
| Misspelt domain | oakfie1d-bank.example uses the number 1 for the letter l | Read the domain one letter at a time |
| Poor writing | Spelling mistakes, odd grammar, "Dear customer" | Does a real firm write like this? |
| Infected attachment or link | invoice.zip you did not expect, or a link that shows another address when you hover | Do not open it. Ask the sender another way |
| Urgency | "Act in one hour or lose your account" | Slow down. Real firms give time |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
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3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.