Can You Protect Yourself From Phishing Attacks ? Total Security

Along with the increase in demand for Internet services and the activity of using the World Wide Web by each person individually, the number of victims of phishing attacks is also increasing. What is phishing? What phishing schemes are there? How to recognize phishing attacks? How to protect yourself from them? All this is in our article.

WHAT IS PHISHING?

Phishing is a series of fraudulent activities aimed at stealing the personal data of Internet users and illegally taking over other people's funds using the information received. As a rule, cybercriminals hunt for passwords and bank card numbers, as well as confidential data of customers of various payment systems, Internet banking, and online loan services.

More and more people fall victim to phishing attacks every year. This is because fraudulent schemes are becoming more sophisticated and sophisticated, and most users do not know or use even basic Internet security rules.

Moreover, cybercriminals do not follow the same pattern. The scope of their activities has been expanded to the maximum. To lure out valuable information, hackers use:

● sending spam to email addresses,

● SMS messages with links to phishing sites or viral material,

● materials on the network disguised as official sources.

PHISHING SCHEMES

What is internet phishing?

Phishing scams are so cunning and sophisticated that the victim is often unaware of the fraud until they find an empty bank account or, much worse, receive a call from a bank or a visit from collectors demanding to pay off a huge debt. Here are some of the most common phishing schemes (as cybercriminals using phishing techniques are called):

Phishing sites are one of the first and most popular schemes for phishers and black lenders. To lure out personal data, fake online stores with non-existent goods are created, services for the provision of remote services (replenishment of mobile accounts, sale of electronic products: books, audio recordings, videos, software). An equally frequent occurrence is the creation of clone sites of well-known brands, banks, and credit companies. It is because of the latter that the number of cases of fraud in lending and issuing loans for other people's passports is now rapidly growing.

Phishing emails. As a rule, emails sent by cyber scammers are disguised as messages from the official websites of various institutions: banks, credit bureaus, tax authorities, or various popular Internet services where every Internet user is registered (Microsoft, Google, Gmail). Such messages contain text with a request, for example, to update a profile or clarify data, as well as links to an allegedly needed resource, but in reality - to phishing sites or to virus files that read various passwords and logins.

Phishing SMS messages. This scheme works differently than email newsletters because victims are usually offered to take part in non-existent sweepstakes or send data to receive a prize. As a rule, SMS messages also contain a link to click on or a phone number to call. Sometimes in such SMS, they are also asked to pay the invoice for the delivery of a non-existent prize or other "related" payments.

Phishing on social media has been especially popular over the past few years, and it must be said that this is one of the most active phishing schemes. After all, the costs of creating viral materials and hacking user pages are minimal, and the results are quite large. Even though warnings not to publish personal data and photographs of documents, not to indicate geolocation, residence address, place of work, and contact information, and also not to send such information in private messages via social networks sound repeatedly, most people ignore such security measures. for which they are struggling with bitter consequences.

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HOW TO RECOGNIZE AND PROTECT AGAINST PHISHING ATTACKS?

How can I protect myself from phishing?

Although phishing scammers use clever and highly sophisticated schemes to defraud personal data, there are some important guidelines to help you recognize their attacks and keep your data safe.

 

If we are talking about phishing sites, then, as a rule, they do not have a secure connection, are not registered on reliable domains, there are a large number of grammatical errors in the descriptions, and all the pages of the site do not always work correctly. If the resource represents an online store or a lending service, then the offers, of course, are much lower than the market price, and after entering the card details, the operation may fail.

To protect yourself from credit fraud when cybercriminals use phishing sites, as well as to protect your money from being stolen from electronic accounts, it is best to never visit suspicious sites and do not fill out registration forms there. However, if you opened a hacker resource and even managed to do some actions before you noticed the danger, immediately leave the resource and clear the computer cache, enable full virus scanning, and also file a complaint about the suspicious site with the State Department of Cyber ​​Police.

As for phishing attacks using SMS and email messages, it is also not difficult to recognize attackers. The main thing is to remember which contests you really participated in and where you are waiting for an answer, to know or have recorded the official numbers of the banks in which you are serviced, and to open messages only from verified persons or institutions.

And if a message comes with a request to update the information on one of your accounts in social networks or on software sites, then, to take care of the security of personal data, it is still better not to go directly through these links, but to visit the desired site manually through a reliable browser.