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Home/Scam Types/Phishing Scams
Brief · Phishing

Phishing Scams.

Learn how to identify phishing emails, texts, and websites. Protect yourself from credential theft and identity fraud.

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01What is Phishing?

Phishing is one of the most common and dangerous forms of cybercrime. Attackers send fraudulent communications — typically emails, text messages, or social media messages — that appear to come from legitimate organizations like banks, tech companies, or government agencies. The goal is to trick you into revealing sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, or Social Security numbers.

Modern phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticated. Gone are the days of obvious misspellings and crude formatting. Today's phishing emails often perfectly replicate the branding, tone, and layout of legitimate communications. Some even use compromised email accounts from real organizations, making them nearly impossible to distinguish from authentic messages.

Spear phishing targets specific individuals using personal information gathered from social media or data breaches. Whaling targets high-ranking executives. Smishing uses SMS text messages, while vishing uses voice calls. Each variant exploits different trust mechanisms, but they all share the same goal: getting you to act before you think.

02How to identify this scam.

01Urgent language demanding immediate action ("Your account will be suspended in 24 hours")
02Sender email address doesn't match the organization's official domain
03Generic greetings like "Dear Customer" instead of your actual name
04Links that don't match the purported sender (hover to check before clicking)
05Requests for passwords, PINs, or financial information via email
06Unexpected attachments, especially .zip, .exe, or macro-enabled documents
07Subtle misspellings in the domain name (e.g., "paypa1.com" instead of "paypal.com")
08Threats of negative consequences if you don't comply immediately

03Real examples.

Case · 01

You receive an email appearing to be from your bank stating that unusual activity was detected on your account. It includes a link to "verify your identity" that leads to a convincing replica of your bank's login page.

Sender domain is "secure-bankofamerica-verify.com" instead of "bankofamerica.com"
Creates urgency with "Account will be locked in 2 hours"
The link URL doesn't match the bank's official website
Case · 02

A text message claims to be from a delivery service saying your package couldn't be delivered and you need to pay a small redelivery fee of $1.99 via the provided link.

You weren't expecting any deliveries
Legitimate delivery companies don't charge redelivery fees via text
The link leads to a page asking for full credit card details for a tiny charge
Case · 03

An email from "IT Department" asks you to click a link to update your company email password before it expires. The email looks internal with proper company branding.

IT departments rarely send password reset links via email
Hovering over the link reveals an external domain
The "From" address uses a slightly different domain than your company

04What to do.

01Never click links in unexpected emails — go directly to the website by typing the URL
02Verify the sender by checking the full email address, not just the display name
03Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on all important accounts
04Report the phishing attempt to the impersonated organization
05Mark the email as spam/phishing in your email client
06If you clicked a link, change your password immediately and monitor your accounts

05Report it.

FTC (US)United States→Action Fraud (UK)United Kingdom→ACCC Scamwatch (AU)Australia→Anti-Phishing Working GroupInternational→
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