Nick: Hi, tech support? I’m calling about a funny email I got.
Mary: Good morning! Let’s connect to your email account. Hmmm. Which one is it?
Nick: The subject header is ‘Unusual sign-in activity’. Is it spam?
Mary: Let’s have a look. OK, that’s a phishing attack.
Nick: Yes, I’m usually automatically logged into the company intranet.
Mary: That’s right. You were right to call. You see that button?
Nick: The one that says to sign in again?
Mary: Yes. Clicking that would capture your credentials.
Nick: Oh my goodness. But it looks like it’s from the company.
Mary: Look again carefully. The company name is spelledslightly differently. It’s called typo-squatting. Very nasty.
Nick: I’m glad I called then. I’ll leave it with you, then?
Mary: Yes, don’t worry. We’ll remove it from your inbox. And don’t hesitate to call us whenever you see anything suspicious! Have a nice day!
Now let's review the vocabulary!
Tech support is short for ‘technical support’. This department helps employees with their computer problems.
In this context, funny means ‘suspicious’ rather than ‘humorous’.
An email account is a user account to send and receive emails from a unique email address.
The subject header or ‘subject’ is the title of an email.
Unusual sign-in activity refers to an atypical attempt to access an online account, for example, from a different device or location.
Spam is unsolicited email.
Phishing is a type of cybercrime to trick people into giving sensitive information or installing malicious software (‘malware’) onto their computer.
To log in or sign in means to enter your details to gain access to a computer system.
An intranet is a closed, internal communications network.
In this context, credentials mean personal details used to access the system.
Typo-squatting is a form of URL hacking, where the company website is written almost the same, for example, Twiitter.com (an extra ‘i’) or GoogIe.com (with a capital ‘i’ instead of an ‘l’).
Nasty means horrible, mean or malicious.
Messages often end with “Don’t hesitate to call, or contact, or get in touch,” etc. It is a polite way of telling someone not to worry about bothering you if they want to call again.