The use of "ph" instead of "f" probably originates from hacker culture, where alternative spellings were common.
Phishing attacks often appear to come from trusted sources, such as banks or popular online services, but are actually designed by cybercriminals to steal your information. Phishing attacks rely on creating urgency or panic to manipulate austria whatsapp number data 5 million victims into clicking on harmful links or sharing sensitive data.
We have a complete guide on how to spot email phishing attacks , but here's what you need to know:
An attacker sends a massive amount of emails to random people. These messages are all identical and contain a link pointing to a fake website to trick the reader into leaving their credentials;
A phishing attack often involves threats that your account will be closed if you don't take action. Or it may tell you that your security has been compromised in some way;
If you receive an email from a trusted organization, double-check the sender's email address. The attacker could be using a very subtle variation based on the organization's legitimate email address.
Modern phishing schemes are becoming more sophisticated , mimicking the appearance of legitimate communications to a disturbing degree. That's why it's crucial that you double-check any link before clicking on it (but more on that later).
Key differences between spam vs. phishing
Although spam and phishing may seem similar, they differ in several important ways.
As for the objectives, spam emails are designed for advertising purposes. They are usually unsophisticated and attempt to reach as many people as possible without any specific targeting.
Phishing, on the other hand, is a much more targeted and malicious form of attack. For example, the famous Ledger data leak exposed the email addresses of thousands of cryptocurrency holders. These people were targeted by several cryptocurrency-focused phishing attacks. Here's an example.
