INDICATORS | LEGITIMATE | PHISHING |
Greetings | normally Personalized | may have strange greeting or not personalized |
Spelling | normally does not contain spelling mistakes | may contain spelling mistakes |
Urgency | gives you time to think about the offer | uses upsetting or exciting statements to provoke impulsive and immediate reaction |
Embedded/Hidden Link | no deception | visible link appears legitimate but actual redirection may be fraudulent |
Personal Information Request | normally information not requested | may be requested or lead to a fraudulent site that does |
Sender | e-mail address is consistent with the identity/country of the sender | e-mail address may not be consistent/spoofed with the identity/country of the sender |
Corporate E-mail Use | legitimate organizations avoid asking client personal information by e-mail | use of legitimate organization’s name and reputation to contact a large number of consumers |
Text | not likely to contain incomprehensible text | may contain disguised random text |
INDICATORS | LEGITIMATE | PHISHING |
Secure Site Markers | https:// in address bar and padlock icon in the status bar | may have discrepancies or not have any security markers |
Functionality | fully functional | may not be fully functional or may link to an alternate website |
Request for Personal Information | will not request for information that they already have | will request personal information |
Domain Name | will use and display the correct domain name in the address bar or status bar | may be spoofed or contain a similar looking domain name or not have a status bar at all |
Error in Browser Status Bar | normally will not contain error | may contain errors while loading web page |
Login | will only be accessible with valid password | bogus user ID and password may work |
For additional information about protecting your personal information please visit RCMP page for the guide
Reporting Phishing
myEmail.lakeheadu.ca does have a feature to report Phishing. With the suspicious e-mail open, users can click on the action arrow in the upper right hand corner (beside the reply button) and select Report Phishing. By doing so, the email system will be informed of the suspicious email and can take appropriate action.
You can learn more about phishing here, and also report directly to Google here.
If you have any doubt about whether an email is phishing or not, please do not click on any links in the email, but forward it to helpdesk@lakeheadu.ca so we can look into it and advise you.