{"id":1215,"date":"2025-11-24T14:28:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T19:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2026-02-16T13:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T18:39:53","slug":"staff-appreciation-and-service-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/2025\/11\/24\/staff-appreciation-and-service-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Appreciation and Service Awards \u2013 Eligibility Confirmation"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Why this looks valid:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2,0,0\"><strong>High Authority:<\/strong> It is signed by the<strong> actual president&#8217;s name<\/strong> and mentions the <strong>Staff Council<\/strong>, making it seem like a top-level, official university communication.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2,1,0\"><strong>Familiar Topic: <\/strong>The subject is the <strong>Staff Appreciation and Service Awards<\/strong>, an event every staff member knows about, making the request seem normal.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2,2,0\"><strong>Professional Tone:<\/strong> The language is formal and polite, perfectly mimicking genuine communications from the university administration.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why this is phishing?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li data-path-to-node=\"5,0,0\"><strong>Suspicious Link: <\/strong>It directs you to an unknown <strong>&#8220;Eligibility Portal&#8221; <\/strong>instead of Workday.<\/li>\n<li data-path-to-node=\"5,1,0\"><strong>Wrong Department:<\/strong> Confirming service eligibility is an <strong>HR\/Payroll<\/strong> function, but this request is supposedly coming from the Staff Council\/President.<\/li>\n<li data-path-to-node=\"5,2,0\"><strong>Branding Check:<\/strong> (This is a subtle, but key check): Official communications strictly use <strong>Montclair<\/strong> or <strong>ÌÇÐÄvlog<\/strong>. If the body contained unusual variations (e.g., &#8220;Montclair University&#8221; or inconsistent capitalization), it would be a major red flag. <em>(Note: While this email uses the correct branding, scammers often slip up, making this a necessary check.)<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Additional Notes:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Do you think you&#8217;ve fallen for a scam? Did you share personal information? Downloaded malicious content? Please contact the IT Service Desk at <a href=\"tel:973-655-7971\">973-655-7971<\/a>\u00a0option 1 or email <a href=\"mailto:itservicedesk@montclair.edu\">itservicedesk@montclair.edu<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Use the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/information-technology\/security\/pab\/\">Knowbe4 Phish Alert Button (PAB)<\/a> to report malicious emails directly to the Information Security team for review. If you are not using the Gmail client please forward the email to <a href=\"mailto:phishfiles@montclair.edu\">phishfiles@montclair.edu<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Always use the &#8220;hover over&#8221; technique to check web links before clicking! For more security tips please visit our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/information-technology\/security\/security-tips\/\">Security Tips<\/a> page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why this looks valid: High Authority: It is signed by the actual president&#8217;s name and mentions the Staff Council, making it seem like a top-level, official university communication. Familiar Topic: The subject is the Staff Appreciation and Service Awards, an event every staff member knows about, making the request seem normal. Professional Tone: The language [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":1216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spear-phishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","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=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1406,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions\/1406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/phish-files\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}