Types of phishing: Five ways that scammers can catch you out

Five common types of Phishing and what they mean: phishing, spear-phishing, quishing, vishing and smishing.

Types of phishing: Five ways that scammers can catch you out

In an ocean of messages, it’s easy to mistake bait for the real thing – especially now criminals are using AI to up their game and make fakes even more believable.

It’s important to remind yourself and your team that there’s more than one way to fish for information, and that these ‘ishing’ attacks are happening all the time.

  • PHISHING

    Sending fraudulent emails that encourage recipients to click a link to a site that downloads malware or that gathers personal or company data.

  • SPEAR-PHISHING

    This is like phishing, but it’s much more targeted. The email includes (or appears to include) details relevant to the recipient to make it more believable.

  • QUISHING

    This is phishing with a QR code printed on an object, on-screen or within an email. If you scan it, it takes you to the fraudulent site.

  • VISHING

    The same principles apply – this is when bad actors make fake calls or leave voice messages to get people to go a website that will download malware or gather illicit data.

  • SMISHING

    Yes, you get the idea – this is phishing, but using fake SMS messages. Fraudsters send a text message with a link to their data-harvesting website.

The role of AI in modern phishing attacks

Employee awareness is essential in preventing ‘ishing’ attacks

Training is all well and good – but over time, the key points can be forgotten, complacency sets in, new team members join… Everything changes over time.

But the need for vigilance doesn’t ever change. Like any other security or safety measure, phishing awareness needs to be embedded so that it becomes second nature. And that takes practice.

Libraesva PhishBrain enables you to send realistic ‘fake phishing’ emails, so you can spot where the greatest areas of risk are, measure the effectiveness of training, and reinforce security awareness and behaviors throughout your entire business.

Interested in learning more?

Try Libraesva PhishBrain free