How to avoid phishing?
The Internet has become a place where it is increasingly important to surf with greater caution. There have always been scams and deceptions in life, but they are becoming increasingly sophisticated and difficult to detect.
One of the new methods of recruitment is through Phishing. Do you know what it is? We explain it to you.
What is Phishing?
Phishing is the name given to the technique used by hackers and cybercriminals to obtain personal and confidential information from victims over the Internet in order to deceive and defraud them.
The objectives of this technique are to obtain personal data (names, telephone numbers, ID numbers, etc.) and bank details (account numbers, cards, etc.) in order to be able to carry out larger-scale scams. For example, if they get our name and card number, they can make all kinds of purchases over the Internet with our card. How does Phishing work? There are many ways to carry out this type of scam, but most of the time they resort to what we call "social engineering". This term means that a person (the scammer) tries to deceive us by pretending to be someone else: an acquaintance, a company, etc. It can be done through advertisements that we can find on websites, through SMS and emails, and even through voice calls, being able to talk, without knowing it, with the scammer himself. Phishing can also be used for extortion. The scammers tell us that they have personal photos and videos of us and ask us to pay an amount of money to prevent us from spreading them to our contacts. They even use our passwords (stolen from other websites) to make it look more credible.
Phishing on our devices
These are usually found in app stores (especially Android's Play Store) in the form of fake applications that promise to do something and don't actually work. Or worse, fake apps with malware that steal our mobile data. In addition, given the high use of social networks from these devices (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc), it is common to find a large number of campaigns focused on these devices, with ads or links that, when accessed, jeopardize our security. These may be accompanied by messages such as "watch this photo/video", or clickbait headlines. It is even likely that we have received some WhatsApp inviting us to enter a link to see, for example, some photos. This is, as always, a scam.
How can we detect Phishing?
Aesthetically it is very difficult to differentiate a phishing email from a real one. But there are small details that can help us.
The first of these is spelling. Most of the time these emails are usually translated into dozens of languages from a single language (which can be Chinese, Russian, or American). Therefore, if we see strange expressions, misspelled words, or that something doesn't make sense, then it's time to send that email to the trash. We can also look at the sender of the email. Although they often use techniques to hide real mail and make their mail look like that of a company, there are often details that are strange. For example, an email from @correos.es is not the same as one from @correeos.com or @corrëos.com.
Another way to see if we are really facing a possible scam is to look at the links that may arrive via SMS or email.
How can we protect ourselves?
Nobody is going to give us anything for free. No Nigerian prince, no company, no one. Much less if you ask for money in advance. Companies (like Amazon, for example) and banks are not going to ask us for our personal or banking information via email or telephone. We must avoid providing any information through these sources. We should also avoid downloading and opening any file that arrives unexpectedly in the mail. In addition, it is advisable to use a secure and reliable web browser (such as Google Chrome, or Firefox) that has anti-phishing protection systems. And, of course, keep the operating system of our cell phone always updated to the latest version.
