Our IT sent out a test once that was a fake “someone sent you this document on teams” link and I fell for it assuming it was another stupid microsoft workflow for sharing documents. The only reason I didn’t actually hit the log in part that would have got me reported was because I didn’t care enough about whatever it was that was supposedly sent to me.
I heard once that the reason that those phishing emails are (usually) pretty obvious is because the phisher doesn’t want to accidentally catch a more attentive and careful victim, spend time trying to wire money from them, only for the victim to realize that it’s a scam before following through, therefore wasting the phishers time. The type of person to fall for the Nigerian prince stuff is not common, but they exist and the odds of them paying out are much higher.
I’ve heard that too. But, super-realistic scams exist, so if that’s right it’s just splitting the difference between the two that’s a bad strategy.
It’s mass phishing versus spear phishing. I believe anyone would fall for a highly specific spear phishing campaign from dedicated individuals, but I don’t believe most people are important enough to be victims of it nor do most people need to really do it.
Right and the motives are likely going to be different too. Mass phishers are just out to make a quick buck, but targeted phishing could be for money, intelligence, disruption, making a statement, or even just clout.
I get that feeling when I press “report spam” and gmail suggest I “unsubscribe from them”, that that’s exactly what the spammer want, a ping back so they know I’m susceptible, that I’m an engaging fool, and get put on all the lists.
Not sure if emails work the same way, but this is how phone scammers work
If you interact with a phone scammer, send them to hell or do anything at all with them, you just get added to a big lost of people that respond to scam calls and so you get more calls
I try waste as much of their time as possible. It seems I’ve been such a cunt and wasted so much of their time that they have put my number on a blacklist.
Yup. Done that one