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Email Scam Competency Testing

   May 6th, 2010

SPAM wallHere's something neat - and vital for library staff, both for those who directly provide computer help to patrons and for anyone else who uses a computer in their daily life:

A recent Slashdot post linked to a test to see how well people can identify spam, scam and phishing email messages (which can happen to anybody).

The test is provided by SonicWall, and would be a great for:

  • taking as a group during a staff meeting or training day
  • testing new employees to help protect your network and increase their tech competency
  • showing to students and computer literacy classes to teach them to evaluate websites and email messages

After you're finished, be sure to click the "why" links on the test results to see exactly what looks suspicious and what are the red flags - that is the most helpful part of the test.




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5 Responses to “Email Scam Competency Testing”

  1. Friday Link Round Up « ellie <3 libraries Says:

    […] Email Scam Competency Testing   Leave a Comment […]

  2. Cari Says:

    Wow! I thought I was good at this, and I got two wrong. Very enlightening.

  3. sharon Says:

    Thank you for this! I’m asking all of my co-workers to take it, and I will work it into many of my presentations for patrons–email, using the internet, computer basics, etc. I missed the very first one — and I thought *I* was good at this!

  4. Test Your Spam Email IQ | JCPL Information Services Says:

    […] to the Swiss Army Librarian for the link to this […]

  5. Swiss Army Librarian » LISNews Series on IT Security in Libraries :: Brian Herzog Says:

    […] of my favorite security-related posts is the Email Scam Competency Test, to see if you can tell legitimate email messages from scams. At the end of the test, click the […]