Shadows in Your Inbox

Our digital journey continues and we have set the campfire for the night. Gather ‘round for some scary stories! See the shadows dance behind the trees? In the woods, we fear noises in the night. But in the office? The real monsters aren’t under your desk. They hide in your inbox, disguised as a friend, or worse.

Here are a few real-life campfire stories of digital horror:

The QR Code Curse

In a quiet accounting office, a staffer’s eyes lit up. An email arrived: “Congratulations on your bonus! Scan QR code to claim.” They pulled out their phone, scanned the code, and BOOM, a hacker used that scan to slip into their email account like a ghost through a wall. Our sensors screamed; we saw a login from a suspicious data center and slammed the door shut, resetting everything before the “ghost” could steal anything. The breach was contained, but the chill remains.

The U-Haul Phantom

Purchasing received an urgent client email. They needed $100,000 in materials delivered immediately to a trailer in a dark parking lot. The helpful staff sent the goods. We found no digital breach. This was a “the call is coming from inside the house” situation: a disgruntled ex-employee using insider knowledge is believed to be the culprit.

The Invisible Impostor

One C-level manager spent six months funding a shadow. The emails looked identical to a known vendor’s address. Only much later did they realize that a lowercase “l” was actually a capital “I.” The manager sent invoice payments straight into a monster’s pocket. No software could stop this, only heightened awareness. It was a psychological trick. By the time the lights came on, the money was long gone.

The Sketchy Meeting

Finally, a manager received a “Teams Meeting” invite from IT. They clicked “Join,” but no coworkers were there. Within seconds, their mouse began to move on its own. A hacker had hijacked the session and was taking total control of the machine. We caught the unusual traffic and shouted, “GET OUT!” We remediated the computer just as the hacker was reaching
for the files.

The moral of the story?  Campfire tales are fun—until your business becomes the next one. If an email feels “off” (odd link, urgent request, tiny typo), step back and verify before you click.

Contact IT Radix today for help in identifying the potential shadows in your inbox.

First published in our May 2026 IT Radix Resource newsletter