GoDaddy is accused of cruelty after it teased 500 employees into replying to email promising Christmas $650 bonus - only to then reveal it was phishing test they FAILED
Internet domain giant GoDaddy is in hot water after sending several employees an email claiming that they would get a holiday bonus, only for it to be a hoax that the company set up to test staff.
A December 14 email was sent to employees of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company after staff had already been notified that they would not be receiving bonuses for the holidays this year.
'Happy Holiday GoDaddy! 2020 has been a record year for GoDaddy, thanks to you,' the email, obtained by 12 News, read. It was sent to roughly 500 employees.
A December 14 email was sent to employees of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company after staff were already told they weren't getting holiday bonuses
The email was sent to roughly 500 employees
The email continues: 'Though we cannot celebrate together during our annual Holiday Party, we want to show our appreciation and share a $650 one-time Holiday bonus! To ensure that you receive your one-time bonus in time for the Holidays, please select your location and fill in the details by Friday, December 18th.'
Included in the email was a large logo that said: 'GoDaddy Holiday Party.'
The company would send out a follow up email in just two days.
'You're getting this email because you failed our recent phishing test,' Demetrius Comes, the company's chief security officer, wrote, the Copper Courier reports. 'You will need to retake the Security Awareness Social Engineering training.'
After the holiday email was sent out, the company hosted a town hall where employees told higher ups that the test was tone deaf.
After the holiday email was sent out, the company hosted a town hall where employees told higher ups that the test was tone deaf
The test from the company was sent to the employees to see if they would fall for a phishing scam.
'The line level employees in a company have always kind of been the prime targets for hackers,' Ken Colburn, of Data Doctors, said.
Within the past year, GoDaddy has fallen prey to data breaches and scams. Colburn stressed that these types of tests are important.
'Getting them to be really much more suspicious, that's an important task. But doing it in a way that's not going to upset the employees is equally as important,' Colburn added.
The email comes just months after GoDaddy's CEO Aman Bhutani announced company-wide layoffs that crucially impacted employees in Arizona and across the country.