Phishing scams are where the scammer tries to get your confidential information by subterfuge of some kind.

e.g. you get an email saying you have won the lottery and just need to fill in your details to claim the money or you have an overdue tax payment to make immediately and you have to login to make the payment (on a fake website)  or …..

The most common categories of phishing in 2021 were :

Spear Phishing

This is where phishing is targeted at specific individuals or companies.

Perhaps an email arrives, claiming to be from a trustworthy source and the sender knows your full name, job title and department for example. The scammer has done their homework to get this information about you to give the scam a higher chance of success.

A link in the message takes you to a bogus website made to look like the expected website. The fake website looks legitimate but only exists to take the users confidential information and pass it to the scammer.

Whaling

This is where scammers target a “big fish” like a business executive or celebrity. These scammers often conduct considerable research into their targets to find an opportune moment to steal login credentials or other sensitive information. If you have a lot to lose, whaling attackers have a lot to gain.

Vishing

One scam on the rise is ‘vishing‘, or voice phishing. Con artists phone people and pretend to be bank staff or the Police or some other authority figure and have a story that lets them try to get the subject’s personal details, credit card details, bank account password etc. depending on the specific scam.

For the bank account scam, they typically warn of fraudulent activity on your account. They then persuade you to move your account to a safe place (which happens to be an account owned by the scammer) and they convince you to give them the details necessary for the transfer or convince you to move the money yourself.

Stay safe.

If you have any experiences with these scams do let me know, by email.