Why Phishing Is Such a Threat to Businesses These Days
Cybercrime is a business. Phishing scams aren’t just sent by hackers living in their mom’s basement anymore. Phishing has turned into a billion-dollar international operation. According to the Federal Trade Commission, phishing is one of the most popular scams to get sensitive information for individuals and companies alike. For small to mid-sized businesses, one phishing email could result in a data breach, lost finances, and a damaged reputation.
AI-generated phishing features, compromised branding efforts, and hacked third-party operations make accessing your information too easy, and phishing emails too difficult to uncover. All it takes is one employee clicking on a link to forego access to network passwords, install ransomware, or surrender a customer’s social security number.
What’s even worse? These phishing emails are getting harder and harder to spot. But the good news is that training your team how to spot the most common red flags can drastically decrease your organization’s exposure.
Here are seven of the biggest phishing red flags—and how to outwit the bad guys before it's too late.
1. Investigate the Sender: Who Do I Really Talk To?
More often than not, cybercriminals impersonate someone you know or a credible and respected organization or individual to gain your trust. While an email may appear to come from a legitimate source, it’s all in the details.
What to watch for:
- The display name may say something like “Microsoft Support” or “Payroll Department” but the domain could be absolutely outrageous, like noreply@accountsecuritynotices.com.
- Extra characters or misspellings in the domains, such as micros0ft.com or amzon-secure.net, are bad news.
- Receiving emails from free domains, like Gmail or Yahoo, instead of a company’s domain.
Actionable Tip: Always hover over the sender’s email to see the entire address. If anything looks off, it is. According to UCLA’s cybersecurity experts, email spoofing is one of the most effective phishing tools—and one of the easiest to detect with due diligence.
2. Notice the Misspellings: Typos are a Dead Giveaway
Trusted companies don’t send emails filled with errors. Phishing emails are riddled with bad punctuation, awkward phrasing and typos.
For example:
- “Your acount has been atempted log in.”
- “Click hear to update your setings.”
These types of malaprops are common in scams sent from overseas and/or via automated homeless bots. They’re sloppy but they’re also calculated. Scammers use these types of typos to bypass getting sent to spam, or only wanting to attract readers who are that gullible.
Actionable Tip: Read every email word-for-word, out loud. If it doesn’t sound right, don’t click. In addition, train your employees to know this and forward all suspicious emails to IT.
3. Hover Over All Links: Don’t Click Without Checking
Links are how most phishing attempts occur. Although a link may say it’s directing you to the login screen or a password reset, it instead allows the hacker to take you where the scam seems it should go—a form on a website that enables credential harvesting.
Before Clicking, Always:
- Hover over the hyperlink to read the URL.
- Watch for strange domains and misspellings (i-support-reset.com instead of support.microsoft.com).
- Determine if all links go to the same suspicious site, no matter the wording (change your password, security alert, view document).
- Take caution when urls are shortened (bit.ly or tinyurl) and found in emails regarding URGENT or CONCERNING information.
According to CISA, phishing URLs are often faked by reputable brands, but the links go to fake pages with credential-harvesting forms.
4. Look Out for Urgency: IMMEDIATELY is a Scam
Urgency is a common tactic of phishing emails that abrogates your better judgment. Phishing emails can threaten IMMEDIATE account deactivation or missed deadlines.
Why it Works:
- Urgency increases stress, leading users to quickly click before they think.
- Panic allows hackers to circumvent email filters before the phishing email ends up getting quarantined.
- Phishing attempts send at odd hours (early morning or late Friday afternoon) when users are trying to make unconventional decisions.
Actionable Tip: Always personalize emails when you can. Even if you’re sending a company-wide reminder about the holiday party this Friday, indicate that you know they replied to your save the date or something similar.
5. Unexpected Attachments: Don’t Download the Trap
Attachments come as invoices, receipts, resumes, expense reports. But these attachments could also be malware, ransomware, or trojans.
What makes an attachment suspicious?
- You didn’t request it, and you don’t expect anything from this sender.
- The file type is weird (.exe, .bat, .js or a misrepresented type of .pdf.exe).
- The sender is attempting to pressure you to “open right away.”
One of the biggest ransomware incidents started when an HR person opened an email that said it came from a job applicant. In reality, it was a recruiter with a macro Word document embedded to cause chaos.
Actionable Tip: Never open unsolicited attachments (unless you’ve confirmed they are valid)—especially if they come from somewhere you don’t recognize or someone out of character.
6. Generic Greetings: “Dear User” Is Not Reassuring
A personalized message usually addresses you by name or references specific information. Generic greetings like “Dear User,” “Dear Customer,” or “Dear Employee” can be a sign that the email was sent to thousands of recipients.
Think twice when you see:
- Emails from no-reply@yourfavoritebrand.com instead of a proper branded domain
- Surprise cash compensation!
Actionable Tip: Allow your employees to avoid falling into the scam trap so criminals don’t get any money and the info they need to steal identities and ruin lives. Additionally, educate them to report their sensitivity online.
7. Too Good to Be True: You Won’t Win Free iPhones in Your Email
Phishing attempts sometimes promise cash, prizes and free gifts.
Don’t believe the hype:
- Unclaimed funds, surprise payments, surprise winnings
- “You're a winner!” “Urgent response or else you’ll lose what's owed to you!”
- Anything that sounds too good to be true—because it probably is
Fraudsters prey on your emotions: money, equity, fear of lost opportunity or curiosity. Phishing attacks can come from fake accounts of reputable brands with links to paid-for surveys or internal departments with names like “Rewards” or “IT Gifts.”
According to the FTC, many fall victim and willingly give up their personal information in response to these hoaxes.
Final Tips to Stay Safe in the Phishing Age
Even with all these red flags, phishing emails can be deceptive. Here’s how to create a more resilient workplace culture around cybersecurity:
- Keep Your Staff Trained Regularly
• Well trained Employees will be more vigilant.
• Send a fake phishing email to your team to see if they bite.
• Train regularly every 3–6 months as techniques change. - Implement Multifactor Authentication (MFA)
• Having MFA enables someone to access an account if a password is compromised.
• Any sensitive access should require MFA. - Utilize Email Filtering & Security Apps
• Apps like Mimecast, Proofpoint or Microsoft Defender can catch issues before they get to your employees.
• Make sure DMARC, SPF and DKIM are set up to authenticate your sent mail so hackers can’t spoof. - Enable Reporting
• Employees need easy access to reporting questionable messages.
• Provide bonuses to those who catch attempts and report them. - Test Before Trusting
• Cybercriminals know how to game the system and get people to think they’re legitimate.
• Trust but validate.
Smarter Solutions, Safer Action: Give Your Team the Skills With isolved Learn & Grow
When it comes to avoiding phishing schemes, it’s about having the right educated team. Phishing has been around so long and your employee’s consciousness should be aware of how to spot it.
With isolved People Cloud’s Learning & Grow (an LMS) , you can provide your team with access to 95,000+ courses in compliance, workplace safety, business skills and leadership to empower your team with the confidence to avoid a scam that could cripple your business.
Key Offerings:
- Scalable training tailored to your business and roles
- Phishing, remote work and digital safety awareness courses
- HR platform integration for compliance tracking and reporting
- Regularly updated courses to address trending scams
Whether you’re the HR Director in charge of such training or the business owner/CEO looking for peace of mind, Learn & Grow is the scalable, customized solution for 21st century employee training.
What’s your next move?
- Schedule a phishing awareness training
- Expand into role-specific awareness and security
- Utilize our integrated analytics for compliance and training tracking
Don’t be another statistic.
Educate your employees. Protect your company. Explore Learn & Grow now to stop intrusions before they start.
One Final Thought: Every Click Counts
Phishing scams cost time, trust, financials, and momentum within your organization, in addition to monetary losses. By installing such awareness training and addressing the red flags, your employees can be your best defense against cybersecurity concerns. By taking care, your employees can be a formidable opponent against any type of cybercrime.
One click can open up a data breach—or stop one from ever occurring.
Be aware, be careful, be safe.
About Platinum Group
Platinum Group is your trusted partner in human capital management. We deliver tailored workforce solutions, including the full isolved People Cloud platform, to streamline operations and free your team to do what they do best.
Schedule a demo or learn more at platinum-grp.com