The Guardian recently reported that a major rail company emailed over 2,000 of its employees to thank them for their dedication over the Covid-19 pandemic across the course of the past year. This email promised a singular one-off payment for the employees’ hard work after a “huge strain was placed upon a large number of our workforce”.
Unfortunately, the employees who clicked through the email discovered that the promised payment was not actually in store for them. Instead, they received a message telling them they were at the receiving end of a “phishing simulation test”. The message stated, “This was a test designed by our IT team to entice you to click the link and used both the promise of thanks and financial reward.”
As many of us know, bogus clickbait emails are a real problem these days. But this was taken one step further than most. One employee of this rail firm had died during the Covid-19 pandemic, and this was most certainly a questionable way to test staff awareness.
“The design of the email was just the sort of thing a criminal organisation would use – and thankfully it was an exercise without the consequences of a real attack,” said a rail spokesperson.
A phishing exercise such as this could certainly damage employee morale, and if affected, employees could consider lodging grievances under the ACAS Code of Practice.
We at Nalders, one of Cornwall’s oldest solicitors, are here to help you in matters of employment.
Nalders have a dedicated team of employment law specialists on hand to advise businesses on employment contracts generally and on any employment or commercial arrangements, you are thinking of putting in place. Contact Dale Band, Gayle McDermott, Lee Middleton or Luke Smith to discuss further on 01872 241414.