Business email accounts are as susceptible to scam attacks as personal accounts. Though a spam filter may do its best to weed out these malicious digital assaults from the daily onslaught of incoming email, some scams sneak past them. When they do, these cloaked villains do their best to fool recipients into believing the enclosed content. One slip and a careless clicker can compromise an entire business network.
One of the best methods of prompting action from the target of a scam is to prey on that person’s fear. Fear is a powerful motivator and one of the most valuable tools in a scammer’s arsenal of evil deeds. In a business email attack, a good way to provoke fear in a target is to make the person believe:
- His computer or digital/email account might be a potential target for a malicious attack, or has already been compromised by an attack
- The server of the company she works for is a potential target for or has already been compromised by a malicious attack
- The source of the email is from a department of authority or a business’s fraud department
The scammer might also enhance a target’s fear by making the person believe he or she will be held responsible for any fraudulent activity committed with that individual’s access credentials unless the person follows specific steps contained in the email. Scammers are devoted to their craft of lowering a person’s guard by creating a reflexive obedience to a perceived authority. When a target’s guard is lowered, the scammer can convince that person into taking action that will compromise a company’s security.
You must be as committed to protecting your business’s digital safety as you are your own.
If you receive an email that makes any of the claims above, call your firm’s fraud department for instructions. Don’t use contact information contained within the email. Telephone numbers and email addresses in the message will likely connect you with the scammer or cause harm to your computer. Even if you know the email to be a scam and avoid it, others in your firm may not perceive it as a threat. Alert your firm’s fraud department to the threat, don’t ignore it. This will give your company a chance to take action that will prevent others from falling prey to the deceptive email.