Phishing Emails: Can We Outsmart AI?

Receiving emails are a part of everyday life. Messages from friends and family, coworkers, notifications and alerts, sales for your favorite stores, and of course our favorite, SPAM or unwanted solicitations. And in the middle of all that are fraudulent emails pretending to be from a trusted source looking to scam you out of your personal information with malicious intent.

In the past, it was easy to detect fraudulent emails due to their multiple spelling mistakes, awful grammar, and overall crude compositions. After careful investigation it would become clear that it was not an email from a trusted source. Now, times have changed, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has “joined the chat”. Fraudsters can use AI as a tool to create realistic looking emails with little to no spelling and grammar mistakes. It can also be used to create legitimate looking websites that are linked to from a fraudulent email, or to impersonate another person, making it even more difficult to distinguish between what is fake and what is real. This is the future of “phishing scams”, or attempts to gain access to your computer, phone, etc. and unfortunately, only the beginning as AI technology advances.

Here are some tried and tested ways to help recognize and avoid fraudulent messages:

• Verify the sender. Are you expecting an email or a text from this person or merchant? Are there unnecessary links within the body of the email? Is there a sense of urgency that normally wouldn’t be there? Contact the sender directly through a known phone number or email to confirm the communication is legit.
• Use a SPAM filter. A program designed to detect unsolicited emails and prevent those messages from going into your inbox. If you don’t see it, you can’t open it.
• Update your security software and operating systems regularly. No one likes the pop-up notification that there is an update ready to install on their computer or phone, but those few minutes can be crucial to keeping your information safe. Take the time to install and you will be all the happier for it down the road.
• Think before you click. Don’t click on any suspicious attachments or links, especially if you don’t recognize the sender. When you’re on a computer, hover your cursor over the link to view the full URL (web address). If it does not match a legitimate source, has spelling errors, or just doesn’t seem right, don’t click the link. Go directly to a website by typing the web address in the address bar. If you are on a smartphone, don’t click the link, go directly to the website either through a quick search or by typing the web address.

Take caution and follow these tips to help protect yourself from phishing scams. Remember, Workers Credit Union will never request personal information or login credentials by contacting you through email, phone, or text. Reach out to our Contact Center at 800-221-4020 if you feel that you have been a victim of a phishing scam.