'Sign this document' emails: how to spot them
A message lands saying a document is waiting for a signature. The button reads Review or Sign. The logo looks like DocuSign, Adobe, or Microsoft SharePoint. The note is short, and slightly urgent: a contract, an invoice, an HR form, a letter from the bank. It expires today.
Most of these are not documents. They are a login page wearing a costume.
Look at the address, not the display name. The name can say your accountant, your director, or DocuSign itself. A real notice from a service you use comes from that service’s domain. A fake one swaps a letter, adds a hyphen, or hides on a free mailbox. If you do not recognise the address, stop.
Then look at the link before anyone opens it. On a phone, press and hold. On a computer, hover. The destination should be the real service, not a string of words on a domain the company has never used. “SharePoint” on the button does not mean the link goes to Microsoft.
Ask whether anyone was waiting on this signature. These messages invent a document nobody requested, then put a clock on it. A real contract is usually already in a thread. “Sign now or the payment fails” is a script, not a deadline the business agreed.
Do not click through to see what it is. Do not download the attachment just to check. Do not type a Microsoft 365 or Google password into a page that arrived by surprise. If the mail is genuine, the other party can wait while you ask.
Forward it to whoever looks after the company’s IT, and mention it if more than one person received a copy. The same note often arrives for the whole team a few minutes apart. The short version is also in the FAQ. If someone already opened it and entered a password, say so the same day. The password can be changed, the sessions signed out, and the mailbox checked. Leaving it until Monday is how a fake invoice gets paid.
If one of these is sitting in an inbox and you are not sure, send it over before anyone clicks. WhatsApp is the quicker path. The contact page is there if you would rather write it out.