What is Phishing?Fraudsters Can't Wait for You to Take the Bait
It’s Like “Fishing,” but Your Data is the Big Catch
It’s no coincidence that phishing sounds like the more benign recreational activity. But while the two things share many common characteristics, one is decidedly more dangerous.
To catch fish, an angler uses hooks baited with worms or other prey. Phishing scammers, meanwhile, offer misinformation to lure in unsuspecting targets. Upon catching a fish, the angler reels in their prize, which they either consume themselves or sell to others.
Phishing scammers? Pretty much the same thing.
Once a victim takes the bait, phishing scammers attempt to capture personally identifying information. The data is either sold to a data broker on the dark web or used to carry out further attacks by the scammer themselves. Here, we’ll start by answering a simple question about phishing attacks.
Phishing
Phishing involves a scammer attempting to deceive unsuspecting victims into voluntarily divulging sensitive information. An estimated 90% of cyberattacks begin with a phishing attempt. Here’s what you need to know about these attacks and how you can protect yourself.
What is Phishing?
- Phishing
Phishing is the act of impersonating a trustworthy party, or sending messages purported to be from a trustworthy party, to trick individuals into revealing personal information.
[noun]/fiSH • iNG/
Phishing scams have been around as long as eCommerce has existed.
The term “phishing” refers to a specific type of cyberattack that’s typically done through email. A hacker uses bogus information and fake credentials to trick victims into giving away money or personal information (passwords, login details, credit card numbers, etc), or to install malware on the victim’s device.
One of the most recognizable examples is the infamous “Nigerian Prince” email. Here, a fraudster poses as a foreign royal and offers to pay recipients to help him recover or transfer his fortune. All the recipient needs to do is provide their bank account information which, of course, is hijacked by the scammer and used to drain their account.
The “Nigerian Prince” scam has long-since been exposed. It’s almost silly to think that anyone would fall for this obvious scam today. Phishing fraud is still out there, though, and cybercriminals have changed with the times. They’ve become increasingly savvy in their methods and technology, employing sophisticated tools that leverage AI capabilities.
Phishing is only one threat merchants face from ever-more-sophisticated fraudsters.
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Why Do Phishing Attacks Succeed?
The secret to effective phishing is camouflage. The more an attempt mimics an actual human interaction, the more successful it is likely to be.
Phishing leverages core elements of human nature. It plays on the victim’s fear, ego, emotional responses, the desire to trust, and even simple curiosity.
Phishing attacks are not only easy to engineer, the technique also works well at scale. Today’s scammers send out massive numbers of bogus emails, relying on volume more than specific targeting.
Technology continues to simplify things for the crooks: stolen email addresses can be more easily and cheaply obtained, bulk emails cost practically nothing to send, and artificial intelligence can prevent duplication. Plus, phishing also offers relatively low risk compared to some other fraud efforts.
