{"id":1142,"date":"2025-11-07T08:00:39","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/?p=1142"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:59:36","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T18:59:36","slug":"document-signing-requests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/2025\/11\/07\/document-signing-requests\/","title":{"rendered":"Stay Sharp with Document Signing Requests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Digital document signing platforms like Docusign, Adobe Sign, and Dropbox Sign make it easy to approve campus forms, contracts, and agreements securely. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have learned to mimic these legitimate services to trick users into revealing personal information, university credentials, or payment data.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Threat: Phishing Through \u201cSign This Document\u201d Emails<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Phishing attackers often send fake document signing requests that look strikingly real \u2013 complete with university logos, familiar sender names, or \u201curgent\u201d subjects like:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Action Required: Your Document is Ready for Signature<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Your Initial Deposit was processed. Review Below<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Faculty Contract Update<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">These messages may contain links to convincing look-alike websites where you\u2019re prompted to \u201csign in\u201d with your university or personal email credentials. Once entered, your login details go straight to the attacker.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Spot the Signs of a Fake<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Before clicking \u201cReview Document\u201d, pause and check:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Sender\u2019s Address<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Is it from a legitimate service domain (i.e. @docusign.com, @adobesign.com) \u2013 not a random or misspelled email address? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Does the sender information match the person\u2019s identity?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Unexpected Request<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Were you actually expecting a document from this person or department?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Link Preview<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Hover over the button or link \u2013 does it lead to the official site or an unfamiliar web address?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Generic Language<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Real university requests often include specific details (department name, contact information, context). Phishing messages tend to be vague.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What to Do if You Receive One<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t click the link.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Report it immediately<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> using the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/information-technology\/security\/pab\/\">Phish Alert Button (PAB)<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Verify<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> directly with the sender through a separate, known communication channel.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h2>If You Already Clicked or Entered Credentials<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Change your password right away<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u2013 especially if it\u2019s your Montclair login.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Report the incident<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/information-technology\/it-service-desk\/\">IT Service Desk<\/a> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">or by using the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/information-technology\/security\/pab\/\">PAB<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">on all of your accounts; <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/information-technology\/security\/duo-mfa\/\">Duo<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> can be used for your personal accounts too!<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Stay Informed<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cybercriminals constantly adapt their tactics. Staying skeptical of unexpected document requests \u2013 even when they look official \u2013 is one of the simplest and most effective ways to protect yourself and the campus network.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Remember<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>:<\/strong> When in double, <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">report before you sign.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote data-start=\"284\" data-end=\"423\"><p><strong>&#8220;Before you click \u2018Sign,\u2019 make sure you\u2019re not autographing a phishing scam. We\u2019d hate for your biggest signature of the year to go to a hacker.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Emily Harris<br \/>\nChief Information Security Officer<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Want to Learn More?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">BitDefender | <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bitdefender.com\/en-us\/blog\/hotforsecurity\/signing-contracts-with-docusign-watch-out-for-these-phishing-scams\">Signing Contracts with DocuSign? Watch Out for These Phishing Scams<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">WeLiveSecurity | <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.welivesecurity.com\/en\/scams\/personal-data-fraudsters-docusign-scam-emails\/\">Word to the wise: Beware of fake Docusign emails<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Infosecurity Magazine | <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.infosecurity-magazine.com\/news\/docusign-phishing-targets-us-state\/\">Surge in DocuSign Phishing Attacks Target US State Contractors<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Kaspersky | <\/span><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kaspersky.com\/blog\/docusign-phishing-emails\/52420\/\">Phishing emails and Docusign electronic signature<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital document signing platforms like Docusign, Adobe Sign, and Dropbox Sign make it easy to approve campus forms, contracts, and agreements securely. Unfortunately, cybercriminals have learned to mimic these legitimate services to trick users into revealing personal information, university credentials, or payment data. The Threat: Phishing Through \u201cSign This Document\u201d Emails Phishing attackers often send [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1142"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1142\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}