There have been many types of Phishing and found cases of it. despite its many varieties, the common denominator of all phishing attacks is the use of fraudulent text to acquire valuable data through deception. Some main categories include:
Types of Phishing
▸Spear phishing
While most phishing campaigns send mass emails to as many people as possible, spear phishing is a targeted attack. Spear phishing targets a specific person or organization, often with content tailored to the victim or victims. Requires pre-attack reconnaissance to discover names, titles, email addresses, and the like. Hackers search the Internet to link this information to what they have learned about the target’s professional colleagues, along with the names and professional relationships of key employees in their organizations. With this, the author of the phishing creates a credible email.
Spear phishing is a critical threat to businesses and governments, and it costs a lot of money. According to a research report on the subject, spear phishing was responsible for 38% of cyberattacks at participating companies in 2015. Furthermore, for the US companies involved, the average cost of spear phishing attacks was 1.8 million dollars per incident
▸Phone phishing
Known as one of the early phishing attempts over the phone, sometimes called voice phishing or “vishing,” the phisher calls claiming to represent their local bank, the police, or even the Tax Agency. They then scare you with some kind of problem and insist that you fix it immediately by providing your account information or paying a fine. They usually ask you to pay with a bank transfer or prepaid cards, because they are untraceable.
▸Cloning Phishing
In this cyberattack, criminals make a copy, or clone, previously sent legitimate emails that contain a link or an attachment. The phishing author then replaces the links or attachments with disguised malicious content to impersonate the real thing. Unsuspecting users click on the link or open the attachment, often allowing them to take control of their systems. The phishing author can then falsify the identity of the victim to pose as a trusted sender to other victims in the same organization.
▸Nigerian scams
As ridiculous as this phishing sounds this is a lengthy phishing email from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince is one of the oldest scams on the internet. This Nigerian prince phishing originates from a person claiming to be a government official or member of a royal family who needs help transferring millions of dollars from Nigeria. The email is marked as urgent or private and its sender asks the recipient to provide a bank account number to send the funds to a safe place and although it sounds ridiculous there are people who have come to suffer these attacks and that is why that you should not believe everything you see on the internet.
