How to avoid being defrauded by a phishing email from a source claiming to be a client.

I have been asked this question on numerous occasions by multiple parties so I will start a series of articles outlining some of the modern attacks and best ways to avoid them.

There is a steady rise in the volume and sophistication of hacking attempts targeting US businesses. One new attempt is to spoof or hack a client email and send out to their vendors as seen below from this week.

There are some noticeable traits of these emails.

1.??????Referenced numbers do not correspond to projects

2.??????The email rarely contains additional information

3.??????The now viewable attached does not comport with typical documents of that organization

4.??????Either the return address or recipient are not standard for this client.

For this type of attack, your best defense is to contact the source of the email in a separate email chain, a phone call, a text message, or a DM on a different messaging platform to confirm their email has not been compromised and to inform them you received this communication.