GoDaddy faces backlash for sending phishing email to employees promising Christmas bonuses

Internet domain behemoth GoDaddy is facing backlash for sending a phishing email to employees that promised USD 650-holiday bonuses. As per reports, GoDaddy sent an email to its employees on December 14 from happyholiday@godaddy.com email. The subject line of the email said – ‘GoDaddy Holiday Party.’ The email thanked employees for making 2020 a fabulous year for the company. “It’s a record year for GoDaddy.” Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the company couldn’t host the annual Holiday Party. “Though we cannot celebrate together, the company wants to show its appreciation by giving a USD 650 bonus for the holiday,” the mail reads. The surprise holiday bonus mail sent by the company also asked employees to share personal information to get the bonus.

The mail said that employees need to submit their personal information by December 18 if they want to avail of this bonus. However, later it turned out to be a phishing test. Around 500 employees of the company clicked on the email sent by the world’s largest web hosting and domain registrar company. All those who clicked on the mail have now been invited to get more security training. The employees got to know about it two days later when they received another mail from the company. This mail was sent by the chief security officer of GoDaddy, Demetrius Comes.

According to reports, the email from the chief security officer informed employees that they failed a security test. “You are getting this email because you have failed the phishing test,” the email reads. Comes told them via mail that they will now have to retake the training for the Security Awareness Social Engineering. Some of the employees have now shared the screenshot of the email they received on December 14. Such phishing emails can lead to identity theft and harm individual and companies. However, many people are now criticizing the company GoDaddy for using bonus offer mail as a test and termed it insensitive. The company has so far not reacted to the development. On the business front, 2020 has been a great year for GoDaddy as it crossed 20 million customers. However, the company lay off several employees during the pandemic.