Phishing attacks have all kinds of lures. And many are so tried and true that it makes them easy to spot.<\/p>\n
The target of a phishing attack is you. More specifically, your personal info and your money. Whether a scammer reaches out by email, with a text, or through a direct message, that\u2019s what they\u2019re after. And with a link, they whisk you off to a sketchy site designed to take them from you.<\/p>\n
Just how much phishing is going on? To date, we\u2019ve identified more than half a billion malicious sites out there. A number that grows daily. Because these attacks often succeed. One big reason why \u2014 they play on people\u2019s emotions.<\/p>\n
Phishing attacks always involve a form of \u201csocial engineering,\u201d which is an academic way of saying that scammers use manipulation in their attacks. Commonly, scammers pretend to be a legitimate person or business.<\/p>\n
You can get a better idea of how this works by learning about some of the most popular scams circulating today:<\/p>\n
The CEO Scam<\/strong><\/p>\n This scam appears as an email from a leader in your organization, asking for highly sensitive info like company accounts, employee salaries, and Social Security numbers. The hackers \u201cspoof\u201d, or fake, the boss\u2019 email address so it looks like a legitimate internal company email. That\u2019s what makes this scam so convincing \u2014 the lure is that you want to do your job and please your boss. But keep this scam in mind if you receive an email asking for confidential or highly sensitive info. Ask the apparent sender directly whether the request is real before acting.<\/p>\n The Urgent Email Attachment<\/strong><\/p>\n Phishing emails that try to trick you into downloading a dangerous attachment that can infect your computer and steal your private info have been around for a long time. This is because they work. You\u2019ve probably received emails asking you to download attachments confirming a package delivery, trip itinerary, or prize. They might urge you to \u201crespond immediately!\u201d The lure here is offering you something you want and invoking a sense of urgency to get you to click.<\/p>\n The \u201cLucky\u201d Text or Email<\/strong><\/p>\n How fortunate! You\u2019ve won a free gift, an exclusive service, or a great deal on a trip to Las Vegas. Just remember, whatever \u201climited time offer\u201d you\u2019re being sold, it\u2019s probably a phishing scam designed to get you to give up your credit card number or identity info. The lure here is something free or exciting at what appears to be little or no cost to you.<\/p>\n The Romance Scam<\/strong><\/p>\n This one can happen completely online, over the phone, or in person after contact is established. But the romance scam always starts with someone supposedly looking for love. The scammer often puts a phony ad online or poses as a friend-of-a-friend on social media and contacts you directly. But what starts as the promise of love or partnership, often leads to requests for money or pricey gifts. The scammer will sometimes spin a hardship story, saying they need to borrow money to come visit you or pay their phone bill so they can stay in touch. The lure here is simple \u2014 love and acceptance.<\/p>\n While you can\u2019t outright stop phishing attacks from making their way to your computer or phone, you can do several things to keep yourself from falling for them. Further, you can do other things that might make it more difficult for scammers to reach you.<\/p>\n The content and the tone of the message can tell you quite a lot. Threatening messages or ones that play on fear are often phishing attacks, such as angry messages from a so-called tax agent looking to collect back taxes. Other messages will lean heavily on urgency, like a phony overdue payment notice. And during the holidays, watch out for loud, overexcited messages about deep discounts on hard-to-find items. Instead of linking you to a proper e-commerce site, they might link you to a scam shopping site that does nothing but steal your money and the account info you used to pay them. In all, phishing attacks indeed smell fishy. Slow down and review that message with a critical eye. It might tip you off to a scam.<\/p>\n Some phishing attacks can look rather convincing. So much so that you\u2019ll want to follow up on them, like if your bank reports irregular activity on your account or a bill appears to be past due. In these cases, don\u2019t click on the link in the message. Go straight to the website of the business or organization in question and access your account from there. Likewise, if you have questions, you can always reach out to their customer service number or web page.<\/p>\n When scammers contact you via social media, that can be a tell-tale sign of a scam. Consider, would an income tax collector contact you over social media? The answer there is no. For example, in the U.S. the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) makes it clear that they will never contact taxpayers via social media<\/a>. (Let alone send angry, threatening messages.) In all, legitimate businesses and organizations don\u2019t use social media as a channel for official communications. They’ve accepted ways they will, and will not, contact you. If you have any doubts about a communication you received, contact the business or organization in question directly. Follow up with one of their customer service representatives.<\/p>\n Some phishing attacks involve attachments packed with malware, like ransomware, viruses, and keyloggers. If you receive a message with such an attachment, delete it. Even if you receive an email with an attachment from someone you know, follow up with that person. Particularly if you weren\u2019t expecting an attachment from them. Scammers often hijack or spoof email accounts of everyday people to spread malware.<\/p>\n On computers and laptops, you can hover your cursor over links without clicking on them to see the web address. Take a close look at the addresses the message is using. If it\u2019s an email, look at the email address. Maybe the address doesn\u2019t match the company or organization at all. Or maybe it looks like it almost does, yet it adds a few letters or words to the name. This marks yet another sign that you might have a phishing attack on your hands. Scammers also use the common tactic of a link shortener, which creates links that almost look like strings of indecipherable text. These shortened links mask the true address, which might indeed be a link to a scam site. Delete the message. If possible, report it. Many social media platforms and messaging apps have built-in controls for reporting suspicious accounts and messages.<\/p>\n On social media and messaging platforms, stick to following, friending, and messaging people who you really know. As for those people who contact you out of the blue, be suspicious. Sad to say, they\u2019re often scammers canvassing these platforms for victims. Better yet, where you can, set your profile to private, which makes it more difficult for scammers to select and stalk you for an attack.<\/p>\n How\u2019d that scammer get your phone number or email address anyway? Chances are, they pulled that info off a data broker site. Data brokers buy, collect, and sell detailed personal info, which they compile from several public and private sources, such as local, state, and federal records, plus third parties like supermarket shopper\u2019s cards and mobile apps that share and sell user data. Moreover, they\u2019ll sell it to anyone who pays for it, including people who\u2019ll use that info for scams. You can help reduce those scam texts and calls by removing your info from those sites. Our Personal Data Cleanup<\/a> scans some of the riskiest data broker sites and shows you which ones are selling your personal info.<\/p>\n Online protection software can protect you in several ways<\/a>. First, it can offer web protection features that can identify malicious links and downloads, which can help prevent clicking them. Further, features like our web protection<\/a> can steer you away from dangerous websites and block malware and phishing sites if you accidentally click on a malicious link. Additionally, our Scam Protection<\/a> feature warns you of sketchy links in emails, texts, and messages. And overall, strong virus and malware protection can further block any attacks on your devices. Be sure to protect your smartphones in addition to your computers and laptops as well, particularly given all the sensitive things we do on them, like banking, shopping, and booking rides and travel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Phishing attacks have all kinds of lures. And many are so tried and true that it makes them easy to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1407,"featured_media":199221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10670,10661,13],"tags":[4452,5163,4185],"coauthors":[15735],"class_list":["post-77546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-tricks","category-internet-security","category-privacy-identity-protection","tag-cybersecurity","tag-online-scams","tag-phishing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to avoid phishing attacks<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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