Phishing examples

These are actual samples of phishing emails received at the College. Please note this list is by no means exhaustive, i.e. if you are unsure about the legitimacy of an email, please contact IT Support.

January 2020

How to tell it is phishing:

• The email, although pretending to come from a Dawson colleague, has a yahoo.com address.
  • To verify :Open the email and choose File  ⇒  Properties  ⇒  Internet Headers  ⇒  scroll to

< Return-Path >: apexinfobox@yahoo.com

• The sense of urgency is also a hint
  

  January 2019

  

How to tell it is phishing:

• The email, although pretending to come from a Dawson colleague, has a gmail.com address.
• The sense of urgency is also a hint
  

  October 2016

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  How to tell it is phishing:

  • The message, is not sent from an IST manager and The signature does not include Dawson logo
  • An action is requested via a hyperlink
    

    July 2016

    

    How to tell it is phishing:

    • • • The message, concerning a security upgrade, is not sent from an IST manager
        • An action is requested via a hyperlink
        • The signature does not include Dawson logo.
    

    How to tell it is this phishing:

    • • • Although trying to pose as ‘Dawson Admin’, the sender is not from Dawson
        • An action is requested via a hyperlink
        • There is no signature.

    The link in the message led to a page that looked just like our Outlook Web Access. The phishers even purchased a domain, dawson-webmail.com to look more convincing

    

     

    June 2016

     

    

     

    How to tell it is phishing:

    • • • You should not receive a message from Itunes about Netflix or any other purchase that is not College business. (in other words, if you do have an Itunes account connected to your Dawson email, it must be used strictly for College business)
        • The link to Manage Subscriptions does not point to Apple.com
        • Apple has a page on this subject.
    

    How to tell it is phishing:

    • • • The sender is not from Dawson
        • An action is requested via a hyperlink
        • The signature does not include Dawson logo. The IT department at Dawson is called Information Systems and Technology.

     

    March 2016

    

     

    How to tell it is phishing:

    • • The message, concerning a ‘system upgrade’, is not sent from an IST manager
      • An action is requested via a hyperlink
      • The signature does not include Dawson logo. The IT department at Dawson is called Information Systems and Technology. The support team is the called IT Support.