Email Phishing Scams

Email Phishing Scams are a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information or to deploy malicious software on the victim’s computer/network like ransomware. Ultimately goal is to steal your money. Installing viruses on your computer is one way to do it. The phishing links typically take you to a malware infected site or download ransomware to your computer.

#NOTICE-7514481336 – 24 hours for confirmation

One particular phishing scam that I had the privilege of removing was the “#NOTICE-7514481336 – 24 hours for confirmation”. The Email said, If you don’t reply within 24 hours your account will be suspended. Click here to resolve this issue. As soon as you clicked on the link, it would download ransomware to your system, a rogue browser extension and hijack your homepage, all without prompting you for permission.

Most common phishing scams

The most common phishing scams come in the form of electronic communication, Email is the most common. They are designed to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card details. This is accomplish by disguising the Email as a trustworthy brand like McAfee or Norton. Phishing emails may contain links to websites that distribute malware. Once your browser opens their website, a virus will install on your machine along with other rogue programs or web browser extensions aimed to disrupt your life until you pay to have them removed.

Conclusion

I have quite a few email accounts that are 15+ years old. There are 3 accounts I still see a tremendous amount of phishing scams is from Hotmail, AOL and Yahoo. Google too, but not like the others. Yes, you can filter them, but only moderately. I don’t know if there is a way to completely prevent these types of email from entering your inbox. It’s very difficult. Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo will have to get behind it in order for email phishing scams to completely disappear.