Phishing Email Examples To Give You An Idea About How Threat Actors Dupe Netizens
An attacker sends a phishing email with the intention of duping an individual or organization to steal valuable data like passwords or financial credentials. The act of phishing has been on the rise and evolving by the day, with malicious actors employing newer techniques to dupe regular users.
Let us have a look at some of the most common phishing email examples to give you an idea about on how to stop phishing email.
Phishing Email Examples You Must Pay Attention To
Fake Professor
An email, seemingly from a very reputable person (say, a professor) offering a part-time assistant work to his students, reaches their inbox. The threat actor did his homework well, to the extent of using the professor’s real office information in the signature to dupe the student. The attacker may now ask for your PII (Personally Identifiable Information) or try to lure you into sending away money to them, saying they need it urgently!
HR Personnel
Another phishing email example can be a message from human resources where the threat actor skilfully designed the email to appear legitimate. The sender email address is disguised as from the HR department, and the document link will lead to a fake log-in page. The best phishing protection measure against such an email is never to click an attachment, a link, or an unexpected downloadable file, especially when it comes from an unknown source.
Dubious Attached PDF
An email sent with instructions to download an attached PDF file that contains a link that requires password authentication can also be used for phishing. Most unsuspecting recipients click on the “download file” instruction, giving away credentials that the attacker wanted for future use. Attachments are most desirable by the attackers because there is a low probability of antivirus detection (as .HTML files are not commonly associated with email-borne attacks).
Bogus Security Alert
Online service providers message their customers when they detect unusual activity on their users’ accounts like “new or unusual sign-in/log-in from another device” email. Since most service providers have this security feature, the attackers have taken this to their advantage and design emails which seem legitimate enough to convince their targets. These emails contain links which the attacker intends to use to steal user data.
Tips On How To Mitigate Phishing Attacks
The following tips go a long way in detecting and avoiding malicious actors, who may try to launch phishing campaigns against you or your organization:
- Using strict security policies and organize awareness programs in your organization (which could include a types of phishing attacks ppt), in all sections and ranks, is one way to know how to mitigate phishing attacks effectively.
- You must always be cautious of emails, purporting to be from reputable organizations that provide links that redirect them to malicious websites. Always take a close look at the sender’s name since most organizations use a single domain in their address. One thing to note is that reputable companies will not ask for sensitive data like passwords and credit card numbers from their customers.
- Legitimate organizations often employ proofreaders and editors to ensure their material is error-free. To prevent being a victim of such emails, look out for any grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in an email, and avoid clicking any links or downloading files that seem suspicious.
- Another tip for users to mitigate phishing attacks online is to use advanced anti-phishing software (many web services and email applications offer adequate security) to filter messages. Installing anti-phishing tools is the first barrier against most common attempts.
It’s rather easy to fall victim to the different types of phishing if one does not have adequate awareness of email phishing protection. Therefore, incorporating training and awareness into the organization is paramount for any organization today. Learning about phishing email examples and how they can be avoided is the first step towards safeguarding your information assets.
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