There’s one type of scam that neatly avoids the need for technological wizardry: phishing. Since phishing is a kind of social engineering attack – which shifts the focus to manipulating people’s emotions and perceptions – much of the technical challenge is removed for criminals.
Last year, 816 people per day fell victim to these attacks just in the U.S.A. Phishing is also responsible for more data breaches than any other type of attack, accounting for 16% of the information lost through criminal activity. The high success rate of phishing attacks has a lot to do with their exploitation of our unsuspecting natures, but also of our tendency to panic about losing money. The good news is that increasing our awareness goes a long way to keeping us safe. But how can you know phishing when you see it?
What Does Phishing Look Like?
A common form phishing takes is a benign-looking email that appears, one morning, in your inbox. The apparent sender may be a company with which you hold an account, but it also may be a work colleague or your boss. The subject line implies there’s an urgency to act on a certain issue, for instance that your details need to be updated to avoid being shut out of your account. In fact, clicking on the link provided installs malware into your PC, and this whisks your personal information into the hands of malign individuals.
And then there’s vishing – voice phishing – which is more intrusive because it engages you in a real phone call with an apparent representative of the firm. We’re even less inclined to believe we’re being hoodwinked during a live conversation with some polite-sounding person, and this explains why these attacks spiked 260% between 2022 and 2023. What can we do about these upsetting violations of our trust?
Protecting Ourselves
Number one is changing our habits. Make it a rule never to click on a link or attachment that reaches you through email unless you trust the sender (and that the email actually comes from that sender) 100%. Even if you’re contacted through a popular social media channel like Linked-in, there’s no guarantee the person offering you a “friend” invitation is trustworthy, so don’t click on anything he sends you.
Besides this, authenticator sites like Scam Detector are super-helpful in ensuring the website you’re on is trustworthy. By simply punching the URL of the site into Scam Detector, you can get a thorough risk profile on it in a matter of seconds. Through reading the review, you can assess the nature of any risk surrounding the site. The overall numerical score guides you actionably in deciding whether or not to trust them.
Signing Off
iFOREX is a CFD trading brokerage that’s been operating in the industry since its early days in 1996. iFOREX clients know the brokerage will never contact them by email or phone with a request to update payment information. When you contact the brokerage, use only the phone numbers and email addresses printed on the firm’s official website. iFOREX is also committed to guarding customers’ private information, which they accomplish by means of firewalls and SSL (secure socket layering).
For anyone who engages in online financial trading, it’s especially important to ensure all communication made with the brokerage, and any deposits made with them, are done through secure channels.
