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Showerthought: a fake invoice email almost got me, and one dumb check saved my work laptop
I was at my kitchen table in Boise around 7am when an email came in that looked exactly like a bill from our supply vendor, right down to the logo. It said the payment info had changed and asked me to open a PDF for the new bank details. I almost clicked it, but something felt off, so I hovered over the sender address and saw it was one letter different from the real domain. Then I called the vendor's main line instead of replying, and they said three other shops got the same email that week. The PDF turned out to be a keylogger that was only 2 days old, since VirusTotal flagged it when I scanned it from my phone. So glad I slowed down for 30 seconds, because our whole invoice folder is on that laptop. What is the one check you always run before opening an attachment you were not expecting?
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jade_butler1mo ago
My track record with spotting phishing is so bad that my coworker jokes I would click a link from my own mom if it said "free gift inside." That said, the one thing I always do now is check the actual sender address, not just the name, because that fake display name trick has burned me before. It takes two seconds and has saved me at least once that I know of.
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