The 3 Most Common Slack Scams — and How to Spot Them

Slack is where your team collaborates — which also makes it a prime target for attackers. Scammers know that if they can blend into your workspace, they can get users to click, download, or trust almost anything.

Let’s break down the three most common Slack attacks, and how to instantly recognize them — with real-world examples.

1️⃣ The Impersonation Scam

Attackers pretend to be your CEO, HR lead, or IT admin — pressuring you to act fast.

🚩 Red Flags

• Display name looks right — but the Slack handle doesn't match

• Urgent tone (“Need this ASAP”)

• Weird requests involving money, sensitive info, or login approvals

• They DM first without prior context

🧪 Example Mock Message

John Smith (CEO)

➤ @jsmith-admin

“Hey — I need you to approve a vendor invoice urgently. Just share your MFA code and I’ll handle it. Board meeting in 2 min — please hurry!”

✅ How to Verify

• Check their full profile — does the account belong to your org?

• Confirm through another channel (voice call, known email)

• Report suspicious accounts immediately

2️⃣ Fake HR or Payroll “Update”

Scammers prey on trust by pretending to be your internal teams.

🚩 Red Flags

• “New benefits program” or “policy update” that feels out of the blue

• Redirects you to external forms/files

• Misspellings or generic sender title (“HR Department”)

🧪 Example Mock Message

Human Resources Team

“We’re updating our health insurance benefits. Please download the file and sign the attached form by EOD.”

📎 Benefits_Update_Nov2025.pdf

(Opens malware. Yikes.)

✅ How to Verify

• HR announcements normally happen in official channels

• Hover links: does it open a file-sharing site unknown to you?

• Ask HR directly — never from the message source

3️⃣ The Malicious Link Drop

This is the silent assassin — looks like a normal resource, but leads to credential harvesting.

🚩 Red Flags

• Strange link formatting (hidden redirects, .ru domains, shortened URLs)

• Unexpected “Google Docs/Notion” requests

• Shared in busy channels to blend in

🧪 Example Mock Message

Carlos D. — Marketing

“Slide deck for today’s meeting — pls review 😅”

🔗 docs-google-drive-review[.]co/login

Notice the extra hyphens and .co instead of .com — subtle, dangerous

✅ How to Verify

• Always expand shortened URLs

• Never sign in somewhere you didn’t expect to be logged out

• Quickly check with the sender in thread: “Did you mean to share this?”

How Griffo Stops These Scams Before Humans Even Notice

Griffo lives directly in your Slack workspace — detecting:

✅ Executive impersonation

✅ Suspicious new accounts joining channels

✅ Malicious links and uploaded files

✅ High-risk social engineering patterns

And alerts you in real-time — like having a cybersecurity expert watching every message 24/7.

📌 Want to keep your team safe?

Invite Griffo to your Slack and secure your workspace in under 2 minutes.

👉 Let’s stop threats before they become incidents.