Proactively Blocking Phishing Threats Before They Reach The Inbox

A regional auto dealership relies on i4DM’s managed IT services to defend against cyber threats. When a targeted phishing attempt reached their sales team, i4DM’s security tools identified and blocked the malicious domain before any employee could interact with it.

Challenge

Multiple members of the dealership’s sales team received emails from a sender posing as a potential customer inquiring about trading in a vehicle with significant issues. As expected, many of the sales professionals replied to the potential customer in an attempt to gather more details. In response, the sender provided a link to view images of the vehicle. The link led to a fake login page designed to steal the user’s email credentials. The attacker replied with a message asking the team members to review photos of a potential trade-in, which included a link to view the images of the vehicle. The link actually led to a fake login page designed to steal email credentials. With a busy sales floor and multiple people responding to inquiries, the client needed a solution that could identify and block these kinds of threats automatically, without relying on the user to catch the warning signs on their own.

Solution

Through i4DM’s managed IT services, the dealership had domain filtering and threat detection configured across its network. The malicious link was flagged and blocked automatically based on its domain age and suspicious behavior. In addition to network-wide filtering, i4DM had implemented controls to prevent access to unknown or high-risk domains. These systems acted immediately, requiring no action from the internal IT team or system users.

Results

The phishing attempt was stopped before it could cause harm:

Attackers were unsuccessful in gaining unauthorized access to user accounts or systems
No sensitive data was compromised
The phishing link was blocked in real time at the network level
The sales team was protected without disruption to their work

This incident highlights the importance of preventative security tools and a managed services approach that adapts to emerging threats in real time.

“Our entire sales team was targeted, but i4DM’s managed services caught it before it became a problem. The security tools did exactly what they were supposed to do: block the threat before it reached us.” – Jason Partlow, Sport Automotive Group