Humans are always gullible, maybe not all the time but at some point in their lives. No matter how much life experiences we have, we do occasionally fall victim to con jobs, lies, hoaxes and even far-fetched or out-of-this-world stories. I’m no behavioral expert, but I believe that the reason we fall victim to such occurrences is because our minds are ‘seduced’. It’s how marketers convince us to ‘buy’ into all those marketing hype, that we sometimes end up buying things that we don’t really need.
So, it is with cybercriminals. They play with your mind as you’re their intended victim, and they do this by phishing (see Definition) scams. Why? Because they want your money. These cybecriminals know that if they dangle attractive bait in front of people, they usually ‘bite’. That would explain, according to one report, why the two-thirds of all emails in the world are phishy. This high number could only mean one thing – that many people are tricked into giving away their money, so these scams continue to proliferate. The reverse could also be true: if not many people are easily duped into parting with their money, there would be fewer phishing scams.
Many scam emails that are sent to you will end up in your junk folder, but a good number of them will find its way into your Inbox.
These phishing emails will normally contain malicious URL (see Definition) links. The email will entice you to click the link. By doing so you may download a virus, or it may lead you to a supposedly legitimate website, but is in fact a phony one. Thinking that phony website is the real deal, you input your passwords, credit card number (if you think that it’s your banks website), login credentials or other personal details that it may request. And you end up being poorer for it.
How do the hackers get into your head? There are 6 ways:
1. Threatening you to comply… or else. It’s the fear factor. You are threatened with deactivation of your account (very often bank account). Many unsuspecting victims tend to fall prey to this so called threat.
2. Getting you to agree to do something. The something is some kind of computer task that will compromise security, but you don’t know it.
3. Pretending to be someone in authority. This could be the manager of you bank, the police or even a company CEO. Since it is someone in authority, you tend to believe them.
4. You feel obligated to return the favor. You feel that if someone has done you a favor, you need to return it. Be careful.
5. If everyone does it, it’s ok. You follow the crowd since you believe that the phishing email has been sent to other people in your circle of friends or acquaintances.
6. Playing on your emotions to get you to like the crook. Many of these hackers are very skilled. They will use their wit and charm, information from you social media profiles, to win your trust.
Recommendation
1. Be aware of phishing scams. If you receive emails, requesting personal information or asking you to follow a link contained therein, stop and think. Though the email may seem legitimate, you have to be cautious.
2. Don’t use the links in an email, instant messenger or chat to enter a website. Always type the URL of the website on your browser’s address bar to get into a website.
3. If in doubt, pick up the phone, where possible, and call the sender to confirm legitimacy of the email.
Definition
Phishing – is an e-mail fraud method in which the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking email in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from recipients. Typically, the messages appear to come from well known and trustworthy Web sites.
URL – Uniform Resource Locator, is the location of a file on the web. To put it simply, when you type the address of a web page into the browser, you are typing a URL.
Source
1. McAfee blog.
2. grossking.in blog