Warm, Encouraging Email From CEO Quickly Identified As Phishing Attempt

AUSTIN, TX—Arousing suspicion among the digital marketing firm’s employees with its warm and solicitous tone, an encouraging email sent from the account of Pulse of Tomorrow CEO Herb Helminth was quickly flagged as a phishing attempt and deleted, sources reported Thursday. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life—he even spelled the name of our company correctly,” said social media manager Esther Perez, who expressed concern when she noticed the email’s tone bore little resemblance to the CEO’s usual cold and hostile writing style. “He told everybody to keep up the great work and complimented our ‘creative and talented staff.’ There was no mention of restructurings or reducing costs or ‘economic headwinds’ anywhere. I can’t even imagine what kind of person would send an email like this.” According to sources, the company’s IT specialist sent out a memo reminding employees to report an email thread immediately if they ever received a reply from the CEO’s account that said anything more than “okay.”