How to spot phishing attacks

  • 8 October 2014
  • 9 replies
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By Georgia Weidman:
 
 Phishing.  It could happen to anyone, not paying attention after a long day at the office, or perhaps the attack is just a little too plausible to raise a red flag even among the security conscious. Phishing is using some electronic means to lure a target into giving up sensitive information such as credit card information or account credentials, or opening a malicious file on a device. 
 http://www.computerworld.com/article/2691622/phishing-phriday.html
 
 

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Hi!
 
Wondering if you'd know whether 'sendbestwishes' is a legitimate or fake site.  I recently received two e-mails in my spam box saying that 'friends' have sent me birthday wishes, I didn't open them as I didn't like the look of them, my friends would have let themselves be known in the subject box.  Also wondering who could have known it was my birthday and my e-mail address.
 
Linda
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Hello Linda!
 
This is a hard one.  I checked the URL on a couple of sites, and did not find anything definately bad.  HOWEVER, when navigating to the site all I get is simply a login box.  No graphics, no text, no site information, nothing.
 
My own gut feeling is that it would be risky.
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Hello LoopyLinda. I'd say you've made a wise choice in refraining from opening those emails.
If the site in question is .com address of that name then what I've seen in WOT (some don't trust its ratings n.b.) are reporting Spam and untrustworthiness etc. https://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/sendbestwishes.com
 
I would delete them.
 
I'd speculate that someone who knows you might  have had their address book/contacts accessed perhaps, and obtained your details.
 
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Educating others on how to spot potential phishing emails is one of the most important security measures we can do as security concious individuals. It can't be stressed enough. Spear phishing attacks are one of the most common infection vectors - many of the security breaches that we hear about in the news on a regular basis now are suspected to be the result of employees opening an attachment or clicking on a link from phishing emails.
 
The last bullet point made in the article is one I use myself and suggest to others on a regular basis. I always follow up when I receive a suspicious email, text message, Facbook post, ect. from someone I know to ask if they intentionally sent it, and if they did not to run a scan and change their password associated with any accounts that may have been compromised. 
 
As a general rule I'm always suspicious of any message I receive that was not expected - especially if they contain links or attachments. 
 
-Dan
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DanP wrote:
......
 
The last bullet point made in the article is one I use myself and suggest to others on a regular basis. I always follow up when I receive a suspicious email, text message, Facbook post, ect. from someone I know to ask if they intentionally sent it, and if they did not to run a scan and change their password associated with any accounts that may have been compromised. 
 
As a general rule I'm always suspicious of any message I receive that was not expected - especially if they contain links or attachments. 
 
-Dan
Excellently and perfectly stated.  I advise my friends, and those to request my assistance with computer related matters, that such precaution is one of the most important things they can do.  NEVER open a link or attachment until it has been verified by the sender as having been sent intentionally, and then still scan it before opening.
David
 
 
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'Bait' for the 'Phish':
 
       


 
  
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Nice graphic Dermot, thanks for sharing that one!  It should be required reading at pretty much every corporate workstation.
Linda,
 
I am assuming that "sendbestwishes" is what showed up in your Inbox as the email sender.  If so, here's a trick that I ran across a while ago.  Move your mouse so that the cursor hovers over the senders name.  Do not click either right or left mouse buttons; just let the cursor hover over the sender's name.  In a second or two the actual email address of the sender will appear.  Compare that address to the name that you see in your Inbox.  If if says something like "Greetings@sendbestwishes.com", then it may or may not be legitimate.  But if it says something like "rr3472@bis896.ru", run for the hills!  It is some kind of misleading email, with a spoofed sender name.
 
If your ISP has a decent spam filter, check out some of the emails the ISP has diverted to your Spam folder.  Try this same trick, and you will see what I mean about differences between what appears to be the sender's name and the actual email address from which the email was sent.
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By Denis Sinegubko 
 
Everyone has encountered phishing at some point – fake emails and web pages designed to look legitimate. This tactic is becoming more popular as attackers are learning how to produce new and convincing phishing lures.
You might receive spam emails claiming to have some important document for you. Some of them have malicious attachments and others have links to the documents online. In the latter case, the links might go to sites that require visitors to log in (fake bank sites and other online services).
In this post, we’ll tell you about one such Google Drive phishing attack.  
 
 https://blog.sucuri.net/2015/10/phishing-for-anonymous-alligators.html

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