{"id":7997,"date":"2024-06-13T20:15:22","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T03:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.islandtechnologies.net\/blog\/?p=7997"},"modified":"2024-06-13T20:15:22","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T03:15:22","slug":"how-to-spot-a-scam-spear-phishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.islandtechnologies.net\/blog\/how-to-spot-a-scam-spear-phishing\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Spot a Scam: Spear Phishing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is “Spear Phishing”?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last week we took a look at phishing in general, this week we\u2019ll be looking at a less common, albeit more dangerous type of email scam. In the case of spear phishing, scammers do a bit more research to find personal information about their potential victim. They then use this personal information to create more targeted and believable email scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These emails are less common because of the effort they take to create, but spear phishing emails account for the majority of successful phishing attempts.<\/strong> The personalized touch goes a long way in securing the trust of unsuspecting recipients\u2014and at a much higher rate than the average phishing email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Spear Phishing vs. Phishing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Phishing emails often come disguised as communications from legitimate, familiar brands. However, spear phishing goes a step further by including specific personal information<\/strong> within the email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A regular phishing email may appear as a minimally personalized communication from a large brand. For example, a message from Netflix asking you to pay a phony invoice. A spear phishing campaign, on the other hand, \u201cmay address you personally, use a familiar greeting, or appear to come from a colleague, acquaintance, friend, or a higher-up in your organization,\u201d as stated in this NYU article.<\/a> The added personal details make spear phishing much more believable than other scam emails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An example of Spear Phishing:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As with other phishing attempts, scammers will use a technique called Spoofing<\/strong>. This is when a scammer \u201cdisguises their email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL,\u201d as described by this FBI report,<\/a> \u201coften just by changing one letter, symbol, or number.\u201d While spoofing is used in most phishing attempts, it is usually more subtle to spot in spear phishing emails. If you look closely, there are usually clues that the email may be unsafe, as in the example below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo source: identitytheft.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note how the email is ostensibly from a higher up at the organization being sent to an employee.<\/strong> That is a common tactic in these types of scams. Closer inspection reveals a mismatch between the scammer\u2019s email address and email sign off. Also notice how the scammer mistakenly calls the university by two different names. While the scammers may do more research than usual in these emails, they still often make mistakes like these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you do to protect yourself?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The steps to protecting yourself from Spear Phishing are similar to the ones you would take to protect yourself from other scam emails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n