Scams – Spam, Phishing, Spoofing and Pharming | Be in Charge of Your Digital Life | Cybersecurity Awareness Program: Lubbock (2024)

FAQs

What is spoofing, phishing, and pharming? ›

Spoofing describes a criminal who impersonates another individual or organization, with the intent to gather personal or business information. Pharming is a malicious website that resembles a legitimate website, used to gather usernames and passwords.

Phishing websites can then implore visitors to enter their payment information, home address, or login credentials — all information that could potentially needle your identity. If this happens, immediately call your credit card issuer or bank and report the scam to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

What Is Phishing? Phishing attacks are the practice of sending fraudulent communications that appear to come from a reputable source. It is usually done through email. The goal is to steal sensitive data like credit card and login information, or to install malware on the victim's machine.

As an ordinary user, you can stop email spoofing by choosing a secure email provider and practicing good cybersecurity hygiene: Use throwaway accounts when registering in sites. That way, your private email address won't appear in shady lists used for sending spoofed email messages in bulk.

As an example of email spoofing, an attacker might create an email that looks like it comes from PayPal. The message tells the user that their account will be suspended if they don't click a link, authenticate into the site, and change the account's password.

The easiest way to become a victim of a bank scam is to share your banking info — e.g., account numbers, PIN codes, social security number — with someone you don't know well and trust. If someone asks for sensitive banking details, proceed with caution.

If they wanted to contact you, they would likely stop by and talk to you or call you and ask you to come to the FBI office near where you live. If there is a name of the Agent in the email, you can call your local FBI office and ask them to check to see if the person is a real FBI Agent.

Differences Between Spoofing and Phishing

Purpose: The goal of spoofing is to impersonate someone's identity while the purpose of phishing attacks is to steal information. Nature: Spoofing is not considered fraud because the victim's email address or phone number are not stolen but rather imitated.

Can phishing be done by phone? ›

And because telephone calls are still considered a secure form of communication, voice phishing scams take advantage of consumers' trust to steal money and personal information. In voice phishing—or “vishing”—scams, callers impersonate legitimate companies to steal money and personal and financial information.

1. The fake invoice scam. Let's start with arguably the most popular phishing template out there - the fake invoice technique. Like many phishing attacks, this scam relies on fear and urgency, pressuring an end user to submit a payment for goods or services they've never even ordered or received.

Most banks should reimburse you if you've transferred money to someone because of a scam.

Here are some ways to recognize a phishing email: Urgent call to action or threats - Be suspicious of emails and Teams messages that claim you must click, call, or open an attachment immediately. Often, they'll claim you have to act now to claim a reward or avoid a penalty.

Tracing a scammer demands persistence, leveraging online resources, and often legal assistance. Initiating with digital footprints like email addresses or phone numbers, employing reverse search tools, and reporting to authorities can unearth valuable leads.

Differences Between Spoofing and Phishing

Purpose: The goal of spoofing is to impersonate someone's identity while the purpose of phishing attacks is to steal information. Nature: Spoofing is not considered fraud because the victim's email address or phone number are not stolen but rather imitated.

A simple example of phishing is bank fraud, where hackers tried to get your bank details through communication by acting as an employee of the bank which is a fraud manner. Pharming: Pharming is a more advanced technique to get users' credentials by making effort to enter users into the website.

The main difference between Spoofing and Phishing is that in Spoofing, a hacker tries to grab the original identity of a genuine user, while in Phishing, hackers design a plot to reveal some sensitive data of the user.

Pharming is online fraud that involves the use of malicious code to direct victims to spoofed websites in an attempt to steal their credentials and data. Pharming is a two-step process that begins with an attacker installing malicious code on a victim's computer or server.