Phishing emails are on the rise and we expect it to stay that way. The team at Expel decided to dissect exactly how cyber criminals are enticing their victims to open and engage with spam campaigns. They analyzed ten thousand malicious emails to determine the top keywords “bad actors” are using in their email subject lines.
If you receive an email with any of these words in it, be on high alert. Make sure you know for a fact who the email is coming from, and as a safety measure, always contact the sender through a separate known mode of communication (call or text them directly, message them on your collaboration platform, etc.) to confirm any actions they are asking you to take. Here is the list of the current top twelve spam email key words:
- Invoice
- New
- Message
- Required
- <Blank Subject>
- File
- Request
- Action
- Document
- Verification
- eFax
- VM
Be sure to read Expel’s full article for examples of real subject lines they have seen and context for each of these key words to make sure you or your staff don’t fall for any of these common traps!
We created the following infographic that you can easily share with your staff so they can be on alert for emails containing these words!
