Phishing Attempts - What are they and how to spot them?
The digital world has become part of our daily activities and it often seems like we live most of our lives connected to the internet. The main disadvantage when something becomes very popular is that it will also start to attract the attention of a bad crowd.
Criminal activity is no stranger to the internet and the word cybercrime is an official way to describe any type of illegal activity that takes place with the use of the internet. The most common way for people to experience this in current times is by phishing attempts.
The fastest and easiest way to define phishing is when an individual pretends to be someone or something else to steal your information. Some common situations when phishing takes place is by sending you emails with fake clones addressed pretending to be companies or financial entities requesting your password.
The two most common types of phishing:
- 1. Asking for your passwords
- How to recognize it: No company is ever going to ask you for your passwords via email. If they do, this is a scam and they are not truly calling you on behalf of said company.
- 2.Asking you to visit a link or open files
- How to recognize it: This attack asks you to visit a link that leads to a login, but the login page is fake and when you submit your info it is then sent to the scammer. The best way to deal with this is to always verify with the company if they are the ones behind that message.
Always be careful with what you open, what you type, and what type of websites you visit, and you should be able to avoid the most common types of phishing scams.