"Phishing" was first mentioned and recognized in 1996. It is a form of sending an email to defraud the victim. Victims may disclose personal or confidential information. Scammers can use this information illegally. You could be giving away both your personal and financial information with a click of the mouse. People may inadvertently download viruses or malware, making themselves targets for scammers. Mrs. Clinton's campaign suffered from this. Phishing emails are a scam designed and orchestrated by fraudsters. Experts have used psychology to understand why people fall in love with phishing emails. Phishing can make it easy for us to fall for it by pandering to people's prejudices and emotions.
Webmail is usually used by banks, the INTERNAL Revenue Service, the government, and other agencies to gain people's trust. Because of the fact that people are more likely to follow orders from authority figures. Of course, webmail can also trick people into giving them confidential information in the form of coupons. More than 70 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 89 have clicked on a phishing email at least once. People over the age of 62, in particular, are more susceptible. The study also found that different age groups responded differently to additional scam emails. By looking at people from other occupations and levels of education, the researchers found significant differences in email content and fraud rates. Higher cognitive ability and cultural background also had different effects on the rate of deception. One of the study's conclusions is that protecting people from cyber-attacks requires psychological measures as well as the traditional technical means of relying on cyber security experts. Although from the point of view of human evolution, it is not so fast and straightforward to change how people think.
First of all, phishing emails bring a lot of inconvenience to people's lives and work. Many people have lost money and privacy. These are indisputable facts. Many of us have had the experience of clicking and opening a phishing app. Secondly, phishing software is hateful, but fraudsters often capture people's psychological weaknesses. For example, greed, selfishness, luck, love to take slight advantage, and so on. While promoting anti-fraud education, people should learn to find reasons for themselves instead of always making excuses and blaming others. Finally, preventing phishing emails cannot rely on technology and network technology alone. It does have a lot to do with both Eastern and Western cultures and the environment in which everyone grows up. People should also learn to change their way of thinking.
Excellent points you made :-)
ReplyDeleteI especially agree with
"...capture people's psychological weaknesses. For example, greed, selfishness, luck, love to take slight advantage..."
and
"...find reasons for themselves instead of always making excuses and blaming others."
Education and self-awareness are the best defenses against social engineering ^_^
Rui, your post is highly informative. I believe there should be more tools made available to educate people. Educating people to simply look at the email address should be one of the first steps to help them detect a phishing email.
ReplyDeleteEmail is such a huge way to communicate all around the world. Especially in business environments. It is no wonder why they even found a way to do this to people.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, the IT department at the company I work for has started a phishing campaign where they are sending out emails to everyone at the company to see who will "take the bait". So far I've only received emails for Amazon gift cards, but we'll see what comes next.
ReplyDeleteI think this is why I started to be scared of computers. Then we had a hacker convention (Black Hats) and a lady was telling me that they are not all bad. Some do it for games, no harm done. Some do it for work, to make the companies come out with better security. Then you have those other people who just try to scam everyday people.
ReplyDeleteRui, I really enjoyed reading your informational post. It is important for people to be aware of the different types of links out there and unfortunately, older people get caught up in phishing scams.
ReplyDeleteLove the information. Over the years I have seen a lot of phishing Emails. Keep the information flowing so people will learn.
ReplyDeleteI remember the ancient days of LimeWire the amount of phishing scams I had to avoid as a teen. I learned my lesson the hard way when I downloaded something that locked my mothers computer up from doing anything until I formatted the entire hard drive and reinstalled Windows XP.
ReplyDeleteIt is very disappointing to see people take advantage of the Internet like this. To think of my older relatives potentially falling victims to phishing is a scary thought, but luckily my cousins are smart to help them distinguish what's fake and what isn't.
ReplyDeleteYou sure know your stuff! It is awful when the majority of phishing attacks get targeted at a more older audience. I always try my best to let my parents know what seems like a scam and what is not, so they remain protected.
ReplyDeleteThis was very informative, thank you for your insight Rui.
ReplyDeleteSome really great information here! In this day and age we can all use a little more precaution to help keep our data safe.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate you providing this additional perspective on phishing. Since the majority of these frauds take place online, it might be challenging for those who don't understand the media to determine which websites to trust because, as you mentioned, we tend to believe large organizations like banks. But ultimately, now most of us understand what phishing is all about in a much better way.
ReplyDeleteVery informative. There are sadly lot of people who fall for it. Hopefully more people will learn about this to avoid it.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your insight of phishing.
ReplyDeleteExcellent and informative post ! but the scams to the elderly are the most seen in recent years.
ReplyDeleteWow, this whole time I thought phishing was a sport that some families would use to bong. Just kidding. Thank you for this in-depth description of phishing. This was greatly needed and appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIt amazes me how simple it is to fall for one of these emails, and how people do try to blame others because they maybe embarrassed that they did fall for it, but it does and will take the effort of everyone to help prevent these emails from taking advantage of not only individuals but business and interrupting people's lives.
ReplyDeleteThis is some great information, thank you.
ReplyDelete