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There are many different ways that you may be sent a phishing email as these campaigns are now combining online methods with offline ploys. Pop-up ads are reinforced by phone calls if the appropriate personal information is obtained by the scammers. However, despite these moves Phishing remains a mainly online form of attack for cybercriminals. Using spam, malicious websites, email messages, and instant messages unsuspecting individuals are fooled into handing over sensitive information that can be exploiting to commit fraud.
In this post we will look at four of the most common phishing scams and how you should safeguard against them.
Types of scams
Since phishing scams are designed to appear as if they come from reliable sources, it is smart to know the difference between real and fraudulent messages and how to spot some of the clues that a message may be a scam. Here is a list of five common phishing scams and ways to help protect yourself against falling for them.
#1. Email Phishing Campaigns
This is when an email is sent to you that appears to be from a person or company known to the recipient. It attempts to illegally gather personal and/or financial information from the recipient. It will include a link where the recipient is urged to hand over some personal information and malware/tracking bots will be added on the recipient’s device.
How to Safeguard from Email Phishing: Never visit links or download any attachments in the suspicious email. Double check that an email is authentic and that they are not falling victim to a spoofed domain.
#2. Vishing scams
Vishing (voice or VoIP phishing) is the voice version of email phishing. It is virtually the same as Phishing only it is conducted over the phone.
How to help protect yourself against Vishing scams: Never share personal information over the phone. End the call and contact the company directly using the proper contact information to see if the enquiry was authentic
#3. Tech support cold call Campaigns
Tech support cold calls involve a scammer contacting a potential victim, supposedly from a genuine security company to inform them (the victim) that malware has been discovered on the victim’s computer. They will try and get the victim to install software to remedy this. Instead they will inadvertently being handing over access to their computer for the hacker to obtain all of the personal information.
How to help protect yourself against tech support call scams: Same as with Vishing, end the call and contact the actual company yourself. Never permit remote access to your computer.
#4. Pop-up warning campaigns
Pop-up warning campaigns take place using pop up advertisements related to the content that the Internet user is viewing. Hackers design these pop ups to look like they came from a trusted source. In most cases they can be quite obvious and terribly intrusive.
How to help protect yourself against pop-up campaigns: Always review the pop up closely. For clear signs of fraud such as poor spelling, unprofessional imagery, and bad grammar. If you click on one by mistake run your antivirus protection.
