LESSON 5

Phishing Awareness

Learning objective: Spot and avoid phishing attempts.

Understand

Phishing tricks you into revealing information or clicking harmful links.

Phishing messages create urgency, use fake senders, and link to lookalike sites. Slow down, check the real sender address, and never enter credentials from a link in an unexpected message. When in doubt, go to the site directly.

Analogy: Phishing is like a stranger in a fake uniform asking for your keys — verify before you trust.

See It in Action

Warning signs to watch for:

- 'Act now or your account closes!'
- sender address looks slightly wrong
- link text does not match its real URL
How it works: Any one of these signs is a reason to stop and verify through official channels.

Try It Yourself

  1. Inspect a suspicious email's real sender address.
  2. Hover over a link to see its true URL.
  3. Report or delete a phishing message.

Quick Quiz

What is a common phishing tactic?

Challenge

List three signs you would use to identify a phishing email.

Success condition: You can name at least three reliable phishing warning signs.