Phishing is a cybercrime in which a target or targets are contacted by email, telephone, or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing sensitive data such as personally identifiable information, banking and credit card details, and passwords.
What are phishing attacks?
Phishing is a fraudulent practice in which an attacker masquerades as a reputable entity or person in an email or other form of communication. Attackers commonly use phishing emails to distribute malicious links or attachments that can extract login credentials, account numbers, and other personal information from victims.
Deceptive phishing is a popular cybercrime, as it’s far easier to trick someone into clicking on a malicious link in a seemingly legitimate phishing email than it is to break through a computer’s defenses. Learning more about phishing is important to help users detect and prevent it.
How to recognize a phishing attack email?
Successful phishing messages are difficult to distinguish from real messages. Usually, they’re represented as being from a well-known company, even including corporate logos and other identifying data.
However, there are several clues that can indicate a message is a phishing attempt. These include the following:
- The message uses subdomains, misspelled URLs — also known as typosquatting — or otherwise suspicious URLs.
- The recipient uses a Gmail or other public email address rather than a corporate email address.
- The message is written to invoke fear or a sense of urgency.
- The message includes a request to verify personal information, such as financial details or a password.
- The message is poorly written and has spelling or grammatical errors.
What are the different types of phishing attacks?
Cybercriminals continue to hone their existing phishing skills and create new types of phishing scams. Common types of phishing attacks include the following:
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Spear phishing attacks
Spear phishing attacks target specific individuals or companies by using personalized information to make the message appear more legitimate. These emails often mention co-workers, executives, or other details relevant to the victim’s organization, such as their name, location, or personal information, making the attack more convincing.
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Whaling attacks
Whaling attacks are a specific type of spear phishing that focuses on senior executives within an organization, aiming to steal large amounts of sensitive data. Attackers thoroughly research their targets to craft a convincing message, as using relevant or personal information increases the likelihood of success. In a typical whaling attack, the victim is often an employee authorized to approve payments. The phishing message may appear to be a legitimate request from an executive to authorize a large payment to a vendor, but in reality, the payment is directed to the attackers.
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Pharming
Pharming is a type of phishing attack that manipulates the Domain Name System (DNS) cache to redirect users from a legitimate website to a fraudulent one. The goal of pharming is to deceive users into entering their personal credentials on the fake website, believing it to be authentic.
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Clone phishing attacks
This technique involves attackers using previously delivered but legitimate emails that contain links or attachments. They clone these legitimate emails, replacing the links or attached files with malicious ones. Victims are often deceived into clicking on the harmful link or opening the malicious attachment. Attackers commonly use this method after taking control of another victim’s system. By doing so, they exploit their access to send emails from a trusted source within the organization, making the phishing attempt seem more credible to the victims.
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Evil twin attacks
Occur when hackers try to trick users into connecting to a fake Wi-Fi network that looks like a legitimate access point. The attackers create a duplicate hotspot that sends out its own radio signal and uses the same name as the real network. When the victim connects to the evil twin network, attackers gain access to all transmissions to or from the victim’s devices, including user IDs and passwords. Attackers can also use this vector to target victim devices with their own fraudulent prompts.
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Voice phishing
Vishing is a form of phishing that occurs over voice-based media, such as Voice over IP (VoIP) or traditional telephone services. This scam typically uses speech synthesis software to leave voicemails, claiming there is suspicious activity in the victim’s bank or credit account. The message urges the victim to respond in order to verify their identity, which ultimately leads to the compromise of their account credentials.
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SMS phishing or smishing
Smishing is a mobile device-oriented phishing attack that uses text messaging to trick victims into disclosing account credentials or installing malware. Victims are typically asked to click on a link, call a phone number, or send an email. The attacker then requests the victim to provide sensitive information. This type of attack is harder to detect, as links in text messages can be shortened on mobile devices, making them appear more legitimate.
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Calendar phishing
Attempts to fool victims by sending false calendar invites that can be added to calendars automatically. This type of phishing attack attempts to appear as a common event request and includes a malicious link.
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Page hijack attacks
Redirect the victim to a compromised website that’s a duplicate of the page they intended to visit. The attacker uses a cross-site scripting attack to insert malware on the duplicate website and redirects the victim to that site.
How To Protect Yourself From Phishing Attacks
Your email spam filters might keep many phishing emails out of your inbox. But scammers are always trying to outsmart spam filters, so extra layers of protection can help. Here are four ways to protect yourself from phishing attacks.
Four Ways To Protect Yourself From Phishing
1. Protect your computer by using security software. Set the software to update automatically so it will deal with any new security threats.
2. Protect your cell phone by setting software to update automatically. These updates could give you critical protection against security threats.
3. Protect your accounts by using multi-factor authentication. Some accounts offer extra security by requiring two or more credentials to log in to your account. This is called multi-factor authentication. The extra credentials you need to log in to your account fall into three categories:
- something you know — like a passcode, a PIN, or the answer to a security question.
- something you have — like a one-time verification passcode you get by text, email, or from an authenticator app; or a security key
- something you are — like a scan of your fingerprint, your retina, or your face
Multi-factor authentication makes it harder for scammers to log in to your accounts if they do get your username and password.
4. Protect your data by backing it up. Back up the data on your computer to an external hard drive or in the cloud. Back up the data on your phone, too.
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What To Do if You Suspect a Phishing Attack
If you get an email or a text message that asks you to click on a link or open an attachment, answer this question:
Do I have an account with the company, or know the person who contacted me?
If the answer is “No,” it could be a phishing scam. Go back and review the advice in How to recognize phishing and look for signs of a phishing scam. If you see them, report the message and then delete it.
If the answer is “Yes,” contact the company using a phone number or website you know is real, not the information in the email. Attachments and links might install harmful malware.
What are some examples of phishing scams?
Phishing scams come in all shapes and sizes. Users can stay safe, alert and prepared by knowing about some of the more recent ways that scammers have been phishing. A few examples of more modern phishing attacks include the following:
1. Digital payment-based scams
These scams occur when major payment applications and websites are used as a ruse to gain sensitive information from phishing victims. In this scam, a phisher masquerades as an online payment service, such as PayPal, Venmo, or Wise.
Generally, these attacks are performed through email, where a fake version of a trusted payment service asks the user to verify login details and other identifying information. Usually, the attacker claims this information is necessary to resolve an issue with the user’s account. Often, these phishing attempts include a link to a fraudulent spoof page.
PayPal is aware of these threats and has released informational materials for its users to reference to stay prepared against phishing attacks.
If a user is unsure of how to spot a fraudulent online payment phishing email, there are a few details to look out for. Generally, a phishing email imitating PayPal has been known to include the following:
- They might start with dodgy greetings that don’t include the victim’s name. Official emails from PayPal always address sellers by their name or business title. Phishing attempts in this sector tend to begin with Dear user or use an email address.
- In the case of PayPal and other online payment services, some of these scams alert their potential victims that their accounts will soon be suspended. Others claim that users were accidentally overpaid and now need to send money back to a fake account.
- PayPal doesn’t send its users downloadable attachments. If a user receives an email from PayPal or another similar service that includes an attachment, they shouldn’t download it.
If a seller receives one of these emails, they should open their payment page in a separate browser tab or window to see if their account has any alerts. If a seller has been overpaid or is facing suspension, it will say so there. Additionally, PayPal urges users to report any suspicious activity so it can continue to monitor these attempts and prevent its users from getting scammed.
2. Finance-based phishing attacks
These attacks operate on the assumption that victims will panic and give the scammer personal information. Usually, in these cases, the scammer poses as a bank or other financial institution. In an email or phone call, the scammer informs their potential victim that their security has been compromised. Often, scammers use the threat of identity theft to successfully do just that.
A couple of examples of this scam include the following:
- Suspicious emails about money transfers are designed to confuse the victim. In these phishing attempts, the potential victim receives an email that contains a receipt or rejection email regarding an electronic fund transfer. Often, the victim instantly assumes fraudulent charges have been made to their account and clicks on a malicious link in the message. This leaves their personal data vulnerable to being mined.
- Direct deposit scams are often used on new employees of a company or business. In these scams, the victim is notified that their login information isn’t working. Anxious about not getting paid, the victim clicks on a link in the email. This sends them to a spoof website that installs malware on their system. At this point, their banking information is vulnerable to harvesting, leading to fraudulent charges.
3. Work-related phishing scams
These are especially alarming, as this type of scam can be personalized and hard to spot. In these cases, an attacker purporting to be the recipient’s boss, chief executive officer (CEO), or chief financial officer (CFO) contacts the victim and requests a wire transfer or a fake purchase.
One work-related scam that has been popping up around businesses in the last couple of years is a ploy to harvest passwords. This scam often targets executive-level employees since they likely aren’t considering that an email from their boss could be a scam. The fraudulent email often works because, instead of being alarmist, it simply talks about regular workplace subjects. Usually, it informs the victim that a scheduled meeting needs to be changed. The employee is asked to fill out a poll about when a good time to reschedule would be via a link. That link then brings the victim to a spoof login page for Microsoft Office 365 or Microsoft Outlook. Once the employee enters their login information, the scammers steal their password.
Malicious actors could also pose as a manager, CEO or CFO over the phone by using an AI voice generator and then demand a fraudulent transfer of money. While the employee thinks they’re making a business transaction, they’re actually sending funds to the attacker.
Phishing remains one of the most dangerous tactics hackers use to target their victims. Behind what may seem like a harmless message often hides a carefully crafted trap, capable of bypassing even the strongest security system by exploiting the weakest link the human factor. This makes cybersecurity awareness not just important, but absolutely essential. Protecting yourself and your community starts with knowledge, critical thinking, and refusing to trust any message or link at face value. Always remember: sometimes, one careless click is all it takes to open the door to serious threats.
