Knicks Sent Employees Fake Championship Ring Offer in Phishing Test, Report Says

Citing team sources, the report said Madison Square Garden employees who clicked were forced to attend the class to help satisfy some of owner James Dolan’s growing cybersecurity concerns. Dolan owns the Knicks, the New York Rangers and Madison Square Garden.

The email included a graphic of two differently styled rings, “Championship Gold” and “Garden Classic,” and told recipients: “(Employee name), this one is on the house. MSG is issuing a complimentary employee championship ring. The same jeweler, the same craftsmanship, personalized with your name. No cost to you.” The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, in an article cited by Ars Technica, reported that multiple team sources confirmed the email was a phishing test.

Vardon wrote that the offer was not implausible because most employees for NBA teams typically receive rings, even if they are less fancy and expensive than the ones players receive. His article focused on Knicks assistant coaches who did not receive rings on Tuesday when the team raised its first league championship banner since 1973; they were handed boxes without rings inside and were told they would receive rings later, the report said. Many longtime Madison Square Garden employees, including some who work in the Knicks’ business operations, will not receive rings at all, team sources told The Athletic.

Corporations commonly send phishing emails to find out which employees miss clues that a message is a scam. Such test emails often appear to come from the company itself but include telltale signs of phishing; Ars Technica’s owner, Condé Nast, for example, sends test messages from email addresses with the misspelled domain “condenest.com.”

It was not clear how many employees clicked the link or whether any recipients will eventually receive some type of championship ring. Ars Technica said it contacted the Madison Square Garden Sports organization with those questions and would update its article if it received a response.