Nearly 900 Million Faced Phishing Attempts in 2024; The Safety Road Ahead

In this digital era, there has been an increased rise in cyber crimes. These includes phising scam to identity thefts. Experts observed a range of phishing and scam schemes aimed at stealing data, money and installing malicious software.

As reported by Kaspersky, in 2024, cybercriminals often mimicked the websites of well-known brands like Booking, Airbnb, TikTok, Telegram, and others. Here's a detailed look at what can pose a threat to you and how to stay safe.

Fraud, scams and cybercrime: The Traps!

Fraudulent schemes tend to capitalize on fake celebrity images in 2024. Falsely promoting giveaways of valuable prizes to fans that were never delivered. The trend still continues to grow. For example, one ongoing campaign has been targeting TikTok Shop users. Cybercriminals created fake login pages designed to steal sellers’ credentials.

Additionally, scammers capitalized on trending news, orchestrating fraud schemes involving the hype topics. For example, cryptocurrency game Hamster Kombat and TON wallets.

Cybercriminals used various tactics in email campaigns targeting businesses, as observed by experts. These included sending emails with password-protected archives containing malicious content and SVG images disguised as harmless graphics, and many other schemes.

Attackers lured victims into clicking on malicious content through fake court appeals, fake deals, counterfeit official notifications and more. Nearly every second email in a corporate mailbox – 47% of global traffic, marking a 1.27 percentage point increase from the previous year – was spam.

The safety nets!

So, how can you stay safe from such scams? In order to avoid becoming a victim of phishing, scam or malicious messages, you need to follow the safety steps given below:

● Only open emails and click links if you are sure you can trust the sender.

● When a sender is legitimate, but the content of the message seems strange, it is worth checking with the sender via an alternative means of communication.

● Check the spelling of a website’s URL if you suspect you are faced with a phishing page. If you are, the URL may contain mistakes that are hard to spot at first glance, such as a 1 instead of I or 0 instead of O.

● Use a proven security solution when surfing the web. Thanks to access to international threat intelligence sources, these solutions are capable of spotting and blocking spam and phishing campaigns.