How to Identify a Phishing Scam
Jun 23, 2022
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If there’s one form of cybercrime that is as old as the internet itself, it’s phishing. A tactic that was developed and used for decades to trick people into giving up their login credentials, personal information, and even their banking details. The effects of phishing have been truly devastating over the years.
However, you would think that phishing would have fallen out of practice as the decades ticked by with people catching onto the scams and how to spot them. However, that is simply not the case, and phishing scams are still used to scam millions of people every day in our modern society.
Cybercriminals have started using new phishing tactics and developing their strategies to ensure that their age-old cybercrime remains relevant today. If you’re fully aware of phishing, there is a risk that you could fall victim to it in the future. Keep reading to make sure you understand which red flags to keep an eye out for and prevent becoming the victim of a phishing scam.
What is Phishing
Firstly, let's explore phishing in its most basic form. This will help you to get an understanding of what phishing is and how it works. It will also help you to understand how phishing has changed and developed over the years to get more victims to be deceived into giving up their personal details, login credentials, or banking details.
Phishing is when a cybercriminal sends the victim an email urging them to interact with a link or attachment in the email. Once the victim interacts with a link or attachment that the hacker has sent to them, the hacker will have the upper hand.
Interacting with an attachment in a phishing email can prompt malicious software such as viruses, spyware, or even ransomware to be installed on their device. Interacting with a link in a phishing email will either install malware on the victim’s device, or it can take the victim to a fake website that has been set up by the cybercriminal. The fake website will have a keylogger installed on it, which is used to track what is typed into the website and it will give this information straight to the hacker.
The website will require you to enter login credentials, personal information, or even baking details, which is how a cybercriminal can steal this information without your knowledge. Now, let’s take a look at how phishing has developed over the years to become even more effective.
Why is Phishing Dangerous?
Phishing has become more dangerous than ever before because of how cybercriminals can manipulate and deceive their victims into falling into their traps. If you receive an email from a random person asking you to interact with a link, you’ll most likely ignore it because nothing is urging you to do as it says — aside from curiosity perhaps.
Cybercriminals have developed their phishing tactics to become more convincing. They do this by using social engineering, which is a way to manipulate their victims into believing that the email they received is from a person or company that they know and trust. The email will often urge the victims to take action or they could face some kind of consequences.
With modern technology, cybercriminals can replicate an email from reputable companies such as banks, travel agencies, or even a globally recognized brand such as Netflix. They do this by copying the colors and logos of the companies and using the exact same email layout, which means that unsuspecting victims would instantly believe that the email is genuine.
An example of a modern-day phishing scam is where the hackers pose as Netflix. The victim is urged to follow a link to update their banking details or they could have their account suspended. This is not necessarily something out of the ordinary, after all, Netflix is a paid service. Clicking on the link in the email takes the victim to a fake website that has been set up by the cybercriminal. However, because it replicates the Netflix billing page, most people will continue by entering their banking details and submitting, thus giving their information straight to the hacker.
How to Spot Phishing
Spotting a phishing scam is often extremely difficult because of how it has developed and how cunning hackers have become. However, if you know what to look out for, it’s not too difficult to spot the red flags that phishing scams give off.
The very first thing you need to check is the sender’s email address. Hackers cannot replicate an official email address, so they will likely be using a Gmail account or similar and disguising it with a tag to ensure that the email address does not show up in your inbox. Unless the email address you are receiving the message from is official, it’s probably a scam.
You can also check the email itself for any mistakes. Cybercriminals are good, but they’re not always perfect. There could be spelling or grammatical errors, or even a slight mistake in the color scheme that you might be able to spot.
As soon as you see a generic greeting you should automatically be wary of the email. If you’ve signed up for a service such as Netflix, the company will have your name as well as your email address, and they will usually start their emails by addressing you by your name in the greeting.
Finally, if you’re unsure about an email, it’s always best to take the long route to what it’s asking you to do. That means you should avoid clicking on links in emails — rather open a new tab and manually navigate to the page that you’re required to look at (for example the Netflix billing page).
If you’re looking for a safety net that will help to prevent you from being caught out by phishing scams then you could invest in a premium VPN. Some premium VPNs can scan emails, websites, and even links to check if they are legitimate or not.
Tags: English