Background
You’ve probably seen it, you receive an email from your bank or trusted company, and it’s asking you for information. It looks natural, but it’s designed to fool you into handing over important information. This is a scam called Phishing, and you need to avoid it. Most of us have gotten used to doing business online. We buy and sell things. We have accounts with sensitive information. The risk of doing business online is as low as dealing directly with organizations you trust. Problems occur when criminals impersonate these organizations and fool you into handing over sensitive information like account numbers, passwords, and PINs. Here’s one example you receive an email that looks like a trustworthy message from a bank. It asks you to click a link to verify the information.
You assume it’s legit, so you click the link and log in to what appears to be your bank’s website. At this point, the scam is complete. You’ve handed over your bank password to the crooks who can use it to take your money. they were able to fool you by impersonating the bank’s website. Let’s say you receive an email from your bank. They’re asking you to log in to your account and update your details. They’ve even provided a handy link that will take you straight to the relevant page. Great. Except that email isn’t from your bank. It’s from me. And I’ve set up a compelling website that looks just like your bank’s site. So, when you click my link and follow the bank’s instructions, you give me all your login information and whatever personal or banking data I’ve asked for. Thanks!
Phishing is a method of trying to gather personal information using deceptive emails and websites. Phishing aims to trick an email recipient into believing that the message is something they want or need — a request from their bank, for instance, or a note from someone in their company — and to click a link or download an attachment.
“Phish” is pronounced just like it’s spelled, to say like the word “fish .”The analogy is an angler throwing a baited hook out there (the phishing email) and hoping you bite.
How Phishing attacks happen
What distinguishes Phishing is that attackers masquerade as a trusted entity of some kind, often a real or plausibly natural person or a company the victim might do business with. It might be your boss, your bank, or a company whose software you use. One of the most potent phishing attacks happened in 2016 when Russian hackers managed to get Hillary Clinton’s campaign chair John Podesta to offer up the password to his personal Gmail account. How did they do it? The hackers sent an email warning Mr. Podesta that someone had his password and that he should change it immediately. Clicking on a link in the email took him to a fake login page. This is a classic ploy, and we all hope we will see what it is. But email scammers are constantly honing their craft, trying new pitches, and pulling new strings. One way to get familiar with their tactics is to study scammers’ email messages. Here are a few real-world examples and how they work:
- Your account has been hacked
The person sending this threatening phishing message found a group email publicly available on the company website. Using that list to target the message was smart. Not so bright was the content of the message, in which the would-be attacker reveals a lack of understanding of how malware works.
- Password reset
Because no one wants to miss a paycheck, messages like this one aim to trick the user into revealing important data — often a username and password that the attacker can use to breach a system or account.
- Payment request
This email has enough information specific to the target company to give even the most phishing-savvy recipients pause. The key to not getting caught in this trap is to know your company’s processes and be able to spot anomalies.
- Charity donation
Here the scammer is counting on the greed and gullibility of the recipient. This theme of giving something away for free is common and preys on human nature. The critical thing to remember is if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Check out these Links below to Study More!
Is Phishing the Most Serious Security Risk in 2023?
3 Phishing Trends to Watch Out for in 2023 – FraudWatch
Why AI Phishing is Code Red for Businesses in 2023
Best Free Antivirus and Anti-Malware Programs you need to install
About the Author
The article was written and optimized by Omar Azhar. He’s an SEO Blog writer and a web developer. Refer to my LinkedIn profile for more details.
