us through the abuse of multilingual character sets . By creatingAttack.Phishingthese lookalike sites with domain names that are almost identical to the URLs we know and trust , it ’ s made telling the difference between fake and genuine sites – and avoiding phishing scamsAttack.Phishing– increasingly difficult . Research by security company Wandera revealed that people are three times more likely to fall for a phishing scamAttack.Phishingif it is on their phone . As a result , this new scamAttack.Phishingtargets smartphone users , where the lookalike sites are harder to spot . A recent survey that tested the British public ’ s knowledge of scams and online security behaviours found 16 % of British adults have experienced online fraud . For phishing scamsAttack.Phishingspecifically , it ’ s one in ten of us . The most common age group to experience online fraud is 35 – 54 , with almost one-fifth ( 19 % ) of this demographic having fallen victim to a scam . CEO of Get Safe Online , Tony Neate , said : “ While online fraud is common , it becomes less so when you engage common sense . “ It is very easy to cloneAttack.Phishinga real website and does not take a skilled developer long to produce a very professional-looking but malicious site , but if you know what to look for , it ’ s easy to stay safe. ” There are numerous ways to determine whether or not a received email is from a legitimate company trying to help , or a scammer looking to stealAttack.Databreachfinancial details . The initial sender is a good starting point . Take the time to look at the email address you ’ re being contacted by , not just the name . An unfamiliar address , or one that doesn ’ t correspond with the company , is a giveaway that it ’ s a fraudster . Then take a look at the greeting . If the email opens with ‘ Dear loyal customer ’ or ‘ Hello ( followed by your email address ) ’ then it ’ s another telltale sign . The real company would address you by your full name and make it personal to you . Careless slip-ups in the copy of the email are also giveaways . Does any of the grammar or spelling not sit quite right ? This is a big indicator that it ’ s a phishing scamAttack.Phishing. You wouldn ’ t expect poor language by someone from a legitimate company .
In this day and age of online attacks , it becomes all the more important to protect one ’ s computer and other devices against the various threats . Criminals often try to bypass existing security solutions on the device in question , but they also distributeAttack.Phishingfake tools that allegedly prevent these attacks from happening . This trend is called “ rogue security softwareAttack.Phishing, ” and has been proven to be quite successful over the past few years . This rogueAttack.Phishinganti-spyware program is a cloneAttack.Phishingof the Total Virus Protection malware whose origin points to the Russian Federation . The software offers you an option to purchase a license in order to remove those programs when in fact the “ infections ” are critical system files . Many more clones of this software exist , and 2017 variants have been spotted in the wild already . ANG Antivirus only targets Microsoft Windows users , the good news is that it is not too harmful because it ’ s main goal is to scare you into buying a software license . However , some variants have proven to be more harmful and may even stealAttack.Databreachsensitive user information . Do not confuse this “ tool ” with the official Microsoft Security Essentials software , as they are nothing alike . Security Essentials 2010 is a malware strain first discovered in February of 2010 . Its most powerful threat is how the malware prevents users from launching over 150 different programs , including most browsers and the Windows Command Prompt . Unlike ANG Antivirus , Security Essentials uses 3rd party trojans that disguiseAttack.Phishingthemselves as flash updates that are required to view online videos . Once baitedAttack.Phishing, the trojan will install a number of malware including Security Essentials 2010 . Similar to the previous scareware , this one will also prompt you to purchase a license to supposedly remove quite a few threats , all of which are obviously fake . Thankfully , this malware has not been reported of stealingAttack.Databreachpersonal information or any more sensitive info and is no longer an active threat . The funny part about this program is that it started asAttack.Phishinga legitimate anti-spam system that tried to automate the complaint process for email spam . The program would allow for a user to send a complaint about a spam email to the software . However , some say that the program collectedAttack.Databreachthe list of emails in order to sell it to other spammers as a fresh list of targets . It did not take long for this security tool to get shut down completely , which occurred in May of 2006 . The company bailed after a thread popped up on a security forum accusing Blue Security of initiating a massive spam attackAttack.Phishingon it ’ s users , Blue Frog was gone one week later . Macintosh users are also in need of proper security tools to keep their computer safe from harm . Mac Defender tried to fill this need , even though its developers had less honorable intentions . It was the first major malware threat to MacOS , its object was to trickAttack.Phishingusers into paying the license fee , ranging between US $ 59 and US $ 79 . Moreover , the malware collectedAttack.Databreachpayment card information used for the license and would use that for further fraudulent purposes . Do not be fooled into thinking this is a software tool that will keep a computer safe from spyware . Instead , the Zinaps software wants to performAttack.Phishingfake computer scans and trickAttack.Phishingusers into buying a license . This is a very common theme among rogueAttack.Phishingsecurity software , as most developers hope to make a lot of money by tempting users into paying for their useless creations . What makes this malware so dangerous is that Zinaps would edit the Windows Registry , ensuring the software runs as soon as the computer boots up . It also makes removing the software much harder and almost almost always leaves traces after its gone . This scareware rogueAttack.Phishingsecurity program will not fixVulnerability-related.PatchVulnerabilityany issues related to Windows or otherwise . Once again , this malware wants to force users to buy a license , while not offering any help with real security issues whatsoever .