As technology grows on one hand, it makes our work simple and on the other hand it provides a window for hackers to access and attack us. There are one many kinds of phishing attacks. This blog talks about the 5 most popular phishing scams of all times.

Deceptive Phishing refers to the attack by which hackers impersonate a company and attempt to steal your personal data such as login credentials. These emails often create a sense of urgency in order to deceive the target. To escape from such phishing attacks, you should pay attention to the words, spellings and logo used in the email before taking any action.

Spear Phishing is a form of phishing attack revolving around social networking sites such as LinkedIn — where hackers collect information from multiple sources to draft an email that looks like it has come from a legitimate source. Many organizations conduct security awareness training for their employees to keep them updated while discouraging users (employees, customers & clients) from publishing personal or official information on social media.

CEO Fraud is another form of phishing where the attacker, disguised as CEO or some senior employee sends a carefully tailored email to the employees seeking money or confidential data from them, although this is mostly used for monetary gains only. It is always safe to check with the sender, in person or through phone, before giving in to the request.

Pharming is a type of phishing activity where hackers directly hijacks website domains and redirects user to an imposter site. This is usually done to intercept online payments or to convey a message. One should always check with the sender either through phone or in person before responding to such emails.

Dropbox Phishing appears to be a legitimate email from “Dropbox” requesting users to click a specific URL or to download a specific document but the intention is to install malware on the target’s computer. To protect yourself from this, verify this with your network administrator or verify using anti-virus software.