LinkedIn is the go-to platform for professionals to share their business and career news. This is one of the first places you may announce you have taken a new job, which is why it’s an ideal location for impersonation scammers to find their next target.
Falling for a phishing attempt can happen to anyone, especially when you join a new company and may not know all your colleagues, so an email from someone inside the company may not immediately trigger any warning.
Always review your emails with these key points in mind:
One of the most common tricks in phishing scams is creating a false sense of urgency by claiming you must complete an action immediately. The sender doesn’t want you to think about the request for too long, but to protect yourself and prevent a cyber attack ask someone you trust if the message you received is valid.
Always read and reread carefully. Review the senders email domain and compare it to your domain. If an email is from someone at your company but their email address contains a different domain, it is probably a scam. Obvious spelling and grammatical errors are also easy detections for phishing attempts. Even the email greeting can give away a scam. If someone from your company is sending you an email, they should easily be able to find your name, instead of starting with a generic “Dear Sir or Madam.”
What to do if you receive an email that may be a scam:
1. If you are not sure if the request you received is legitimate, ask. Directly contact the person whose name appears on the email. Call them or go to their office and ask if they sent you an email. If the email asks you to purchase goods or services with your own money to be reimbursed, find out if this is a policy the company has in place. Get all the facts before taking any action on the email sender’s request.
2. Report any suspicious activity to your IT team right away. This allows the team to investigate the email, flag certain indicators as spam to reduce the frequency of attacks, and alert others in the company to be aware of the scam.
It’s always better to be safe than sorry. Don’t let a new job be dampened by an impersonator trying to attack you and your company.
