The Psychology of Phishing

Scammers rely on our natural responses to certain factors in our society and try to take advantage of them. The factors below are commonly exploited.

Exploitation of Trust

We're conditioned to trust official-looking communications. Scammers exploit this by mimicking legitimate organizations.

Authority Bias

We tend to comply with requests from authority figures. Emails appearing to come from executives or government agencies trigger this response.

Fear and Urgency

Threats of account closure or legal action trigger a panic response, causing you to bypassing rational analysis. We're more likely to follow instructions provided in this situation.

Curiosity

Subject lines like "You have a package waiting" or "Someone shared a document with you" exploit our natural curiosity.

Counter-measures to help curb your automatic response.

When you feel an emotional response (fear, urgency, excitement, curiosity), PAUSE. That's exactly when you need to be most analytical.

Extra Hint - The "Too Good to Be True" Rule

If an email promises:

You've won a lottery you didn't enter
Unexpected refunds or payments
Jobs requiring no experience for high pay
Investment opportunities with guaranteed returns
Free gifts or prizes

- then it's most likely a scam.

Lesson 3. Why do we mistake Phishing emails for legitimate ones?

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