Phishing is one of the oldest cyber-criminal activities has been still used by the scammers to lure people into their ploys. Earlier it was quite easy to identify phishing attempts by spotting the misspelled links, odd link redirects, and other such happenings. However, it is not the case today. Such activities have become more personalized, unconventional, and the scammers have found more advanced ways to accomplish these in complete disguise.
Although phishing scams can be side-stepped if you deploy McAfee on your device via
mcafee.com/activate.
Ways to spot and side-step phishing scams
Even if you have a security solution on your device, you must take precautions to avoid falling prey to cyber-criminals. Without further ado, let’s discuss the most common phishing attempts and the ways through which one can side-step them.
1 - Stay cautious while opening emails from unknown sources
Since we use many platforms which require our email address, hence we get a number of emails from both known as well as unknown sources. The scammers have devised ways to trap people by sending such emails which require the users to input some crucial information urgently. The emails sender usually disguises himself as a bank authority, institutional authorities, and other popular services. To avoid this, one should be wary of opening emails from the unknown.
2 - Do not click on look-a-like links
It is somewhat similar to email phishing. Cybercriminals make use of attaches a link with an email that redirects a user to suspicious websites. On this fake website, a user is asked to input their personal details which might lead to identity-theft or robbery. To stay protected from phishing scams, one should avoid clicking on the suspicious links in such emails.
3 - Gone Whaling and Spear Target Acquired
Gone whaling and spear-phishing are almost similar. In the earlier scam, the targets of the cyber-criminals are the C-suite members and in the latter one, their targets are lower-level employees. In this phishing scam, the cybercriminals try his best to manipulate the target to get hold of his financial information which ultimately leads to robbery. He also tries to obtain from him the company personal data such as trade secrets, customers data, intellectual property and alike. To avoid this, personnel should be given proper training about how they should maintain the company’s decorum and how they should stay alarmed in such situations.
4 - The search engine might redirect you to fake websites
While users make use of search engine to get to a specific result, but one should not always expect the search engine to take you to a trusted website. Although search engines strive hard to not to display such websites on their page, scammers are no way behind. They also find their ways to get into it. Hence, one should look for potentially sketchy ads in particular. It is always recommended to go through the official website while making any search.
Recommended: Online Scam: Is McAfee a right choice to fight against it?
Endnote:
Other than the mentioned above, there are many ways through which cybercriminals accomplish their goals. One of them is voice phishing, where your information has been obtained by fake calls where the person disguises himself from a trusted source. So, it is very important to stay alert and extra cautious while sharing your information with anyone. You may also visit
www.mcafee.com/activate to download the security suites through which you can avoid such situations.
