Few things are more frustrating to me as a WDA officer, and especially as your editor, than hearing a member say “When did that happen?” or “I didn’t know anything about that!”. The WDA communications team makes a tremendous effort to keep our members updated on association activities and advocacy efforts often and in a variety of ways both in print and electronically. We encourage members to read their emails to stay informed.
So when a member is harmed by opening an email that was purportedly from the WDA, I get mad. There is nothing that I can do to stop the scammers and their search for your information (known as “phishing”), but I can at least try to share some ways to avoid being a victim.
Who is the email addressed to? Is there an unusually large list (often in alphabetical order) of individuals who I might not be associated with?
Who was it from? Is the message from someone I don’t know, or wouldn’t normally hear from?When was the message sent? Was it sent during regular business hours? (American business hours, not in Uzbekistan)
Pay attention to the subject column. Is it related to the message? Does it indicate that it is a reply to an email that you never sent? Is it something generic like “Greetings” or “Hi”?
Are there attachments to the message? Is it something that you were expecting?
Does the content of the message make sense? Are their threats or consequences if you don’t do anything (especially opening or answering something)? Are there grammar or spelling errors, or phases that sound like awkward translations?
Hover your mouse over any hyperlinks to see if the address is different than the sender. Is there just a link without any other information? Look carefully to see if the link is spelled correctly (e.g. U5Bank instead of USBank).
Lastly, use your gut. If it seems “phishy” to you, it probably is!
