Yesterday my colleague received an email (see image below) and I thought it pertinent to let you know as there are a few points that everyone should be aware of.
Firstly, you need to always bear in mind that most emails travel over the Internet in plain text. This means, however unlikely, your message body could be read or processed while on its journey. Obviously, with this in mind you should realise that anything in your emails is therefore in the public domain.
(NOTE : If you’re an Office365 customer and you email another Office365 customer then it won’t leave Microsoft’s network so is therefore safer)
The email above was NOT from me. That’s not to say my system has been hacked just that an email has been sent with the ‘from’ address spoofed (faked!) as mine. Also, this external system or person has surmised that Martin and I are somehow linked and likely to communicate which lends more apparent validity to the email.
Martin realised it wasn’t genuine for several reasons:
- I don’t have an iPhone
- We wouldn’t use the Faster Payments Service.
- I’m a grammar pedant so wouldn’t start a sentence without a capital letter or use a lower case “i” for the first-person singular nominative case personal pronoun. (See, told you!)
- My signature isn’t on the email
- I don’t structure my emails in this fashion.
- I’d be more likely to send him a IM for something like this. (Are you using Skype for Business for instant messaging?)
Furthermore, if you’re in the slightest unsure about an email definitely don’t click any links that it contains.
Feel free to pass this info on to colleagues and friends.
Lastly, if you have a requirement to be able to send encrypted or digitally signed emails or would just like to know more, let me know by email.