Recognizing phishing emails and messages
Spot the signs of phishing in email and text messages, and know exactly what to do with a suspicious message.
- Level
- Beginner
- Length
- About 25 minutes
- Contents
- 3 lessons · 1 video · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 1 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Check the sender's real address and the link's real destination.
- Recognize pressure tactics: urgency, secrecy, threats and unusual requests.
- Report a suspicious message the approved way instead of deleting or forwarding it.
- Tell a normal internal message apart from a lookalike.
Course outline
- 1.Recognizing phishing emails and messagesVideo · 4 min
- 2.Five checks before you clickLesson · 8 min
- 3.Reading the sender and the linkLesson · 8 min
- 4.Authentication results in message headersLesson · 8 min
- 5.Recognizing phishing emails and messages: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 21 questions
- 6.Suspicious email reported by a customerScenario
- 7.Final exam6 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
- CISA: Recognize and Report Phishing
- NCSC (UK): Phishing attacks: defending your organisation
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.