Phishing, Smishing & Vishing: How to protect yourself from data theft!

Information from our cooperation partner Watchlist-Internet: In order to steal your access data, criminals pose as banks and well-known companies such as Netflix, Amazon or PayPal. Criminals try to lure you to fake login pages using urgent emails and text messages. Calls are also common to get your data. We'll show you how to protect yourself from data theft.

Screenshot: Watchlist Internet / various examples of phishing sites / How to protect yourself from data theft
Screenshot: Watchlist Internet / various examples of phishing sites

What is Phishing?

When phishing, criminals steal valuable access data. Online banking data, login data from online services such as Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon as well as user data for Facebook, Instagram and Co. are popular.

Phishing traps are disguised as emails, SMS or chat messages. For example, criminals pose as a bank and invent “important information”. The similar design, stolen logos and manipulated senders make the fraudulent messages appear trustworthy. An urgent message entices you to click on a link. The link then takes you to a fake login page that looks exactly like the real one. However, this fake login page was programmed in such a way that criminals can use it to access your access data.

You can recognize a fake login page by the internet address. The internet address of the reconstructed login page is completely implausible.

Smishing & Vishing: Phishing via SMS and calls

Smishing is a combination of the words “SMS” and “phishing” and is a form of classic phishing. The fake message is not sent via email, but via SMS.

With vishing (voice and phishing), criminals try to get your access data via calls or get you to make a transfer directly. The telephone number is usually disguised or manipulated. This means that your screen will then appear adapted to the scam, e.g. E.g. “Police”, “Microsoft” or the name of a bank.

Recognize phishing emails

  • Link: A link in an email is always suspicious! Never click on the link hastily. Better yet, log into your account as always. This way you can check straight away whether the claim in the email is really true. If it were real, you would also be notified in your account.
  • Impersonal salutation: Phishing emails are sent in large numbers, so you will only be addressed as “Hello” or “Dear customer”.
  • Spelling and grammatical errors: The emails are usually worded strangely and full of errors.
  • Unusual sender email address: The sender's name can be freely chosen, so it is important to take a close look at the email address. This is completely implausible in the case of a fraudulent email. Attention: Sometimes the company name appears in the email address. Compare the email address with the company's official address.
  • Urgent request to do something: e.g. E.g. complete data, download app or update account information.
  • Threat of consequences if no action is taken: You will be asked to click on the link immediately or within a short period of time, otherwise your account will be blocked or a fee will be charged. Criminals use this to create stress in order to get you to act rashly.

Detect smishing messages

  • Link : There is a link in the SMS.
  • Spelling and grammatical errors: Errors indicate an attempted fraud.
  • Manipulated sender: What is displayed as the sender can be freely chosen or even manipulated. Instead of a telephone number, e.g. B. “Post” or the name of a bank is displayed.
  • Urgent request to do something and threat of consequences: This creates stress or curiosity, so that recipients click on the link prematurely.

Detect vishing calls

  • Customer data is requested: If she calls a company and asks for customer data, it is a scam! Reputable companies will not call you to request customer information or demand an immediate transfer.
  • Call center: The call is made from a call center.
  • Language: The person speaks English or broken German.
  • Computer voice: A call from a computer-generated voice is clearly fake.

Are you receiving fraudulent messages? This is what you can do:

  • Move fraudulent email to your spam or junk folder . This will help your email program learn to better recognize phishing emails.
  • Don't answer . This confirms your contact details to the criminals.
  • Block the sender of unwanted SMS.
  • Never rush to open attachments or click on links.
  • Check with the company to make sure the message actually came from them

source

Watchlist Internet

Also read: Facebook phishing! Be careful of sites that tag you


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