Phishing email almost got me at 6 AM in the office

Last Tuesday I rolled in early to pour a driveway on Maple Street and saw an urgent email from my bank about a failed wire transfer, so I clicked the link without thinking. It asked for my account number and password, but the page looked off because the logo was blurry and the URL had a typo. How do you guys train yourself to double check every link when you're half awake and already stressed about the job site?

2 comments

2 Comments

derekwalker18h agoMost Upvoted

Ditch the whole “failed wire transfer” thing for a second. That email would have been a dead giveaway if you weren’t half asleep, real banks don’t send that kind of urgent stuff without a fraud alert phone call first. I read the URL twice even when I’m fully awake, but the trick that works for me is hovering over the link without clicking and looking at the address bar like it’s a warning sign. If the page asks for a password before you even log in normally, that’s the biggest red flag there is. Just type the bank’s address yourself into the browser next time, it takes an extra ten seconds and saves you a whole mess.

jamesblack1d ago

Damn, that could have been me last month when I clicked a fake fuel invoice link before coffee and got halfway through typing my password before realizing the domain was off. Now I just make it a rule to never click anything from an email unless I'm fully awake and can read the URL twice.