How to Report Different Kinds of Phishing?

Phishing is a major and vital issue with the aim of data stealing and security breaches in the network and is mostly used for targeting individuals, businesses, and organizations worldwide to get access to sensitive and touchy information.

Phishing detection and reporting are very useful and must be followed to stay protected against cybercrime and fraud.

Phishing can be categorized into different types, such as email phishing, smishing or text message phishing, vishing or phone call phishing, and social media phishing.

Phishing is a technique used by attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive and touchy data by posing as genuine and legitimate entities and stealing private information such as login credentials, financial information, or personal information.

Phishing attacks are usually done by sending spam emails, malicious text messages, or also by creating fake websites that look genuine and legit.

Phisher

The phisher is the attacker itself and responsible for the phishing attempts.

Spoofing

Spoofing is the technique used for targeting individual and business by falsifying and tricking to reveal and get information and recipient falls into the trap and by believing that the message is from a trusted and reliable source.

Pharming

Pharming are nothing by redirection of the users to actually land up on a fake website, even if the the correct address was entered into the browser.

Spear Phishing

Spear Phishing is a type of targeted fishing and personalized messages are sent to the recipient and the spam message are treated as legit and the attacker steals sensitive information from the recipients and do whatever they want.

URL Obfuscation

URL obfuscation is a popular technique used by attackers and malicious and false links are hidden along with the legit URLs and the users falls pray to it easily and confidential and personal information are revealed and the same can be used by cyber criminals for different purposes.

Phishing Kit

A phishing kit refer to the set of tools and resources used by attacker to create and deploy phishing attacks.

Reporting phishing attempts to the concerned and appropriate authorities, we can prevent the unauthorized access of sensitive and touchy information from being stolen and to be used for doing fraudulent activities. Phishing reporting also helps to ban malicious and suspicious websites and email accounts and hence internet surfing becomes secure and safer for everyone. Reporting the phishing not only gives protection to online security for an individual but also to combat and reduce the cybercrime and attacks for the online fraud.

1. Email phishing

Email phishing is a common technique used by cybercriminals and tries to trick any recipient into revealing the sensitive information upon clicking on malicious links.

We may receive a suspicious email having a personalized message giving any discount offer or may contain suspicious attachments, or links that redirect to unknown websites and may end up giving any personal or financial information and hence may have to be extremely careful to do not interact any such attempt.

2. Text Messages (Smishing)

Smishing also involve attempts such as sending fraudulent and spam text messages to trick and fool people and usually done to get access to unauthorized sensitive and personal information.

We can receive a text message asking for taking action to do KYC for completing the bank mandate or getting unbelievable offers and hence need to be very careful and try to avoid responding to such attempts.

3. Phone Call Phishing (vishing)

Vishing is a type of phishing is done by phone calls and are often done to trick any victims into doing any financial transaction for getting any free credit card or similar attempts.

We may also receive an unsolicited call asking for verification of any personal data or any kind of offer related to dubious services and so we need to be alert and do not disclose any such details.

4. Phishing on Social Media

Social media phishing attacks are very common and can also occur through by any of the social media platforms(face book, twitter and so on), where any fraudsters remain active as legitimate personal and sends malicious links via public posts or messages.

We can report the phishing with the following up the below,

1. Avoiding and Staying Careful to Malicious and False Attempts and be Irresponsive

Phishing attempts are done to falsify people and influence them to make them do any unnecessary stuff and some time click on suspicious link or downloading any malicious applications and hence, we need to be careful to do not respond and fall prey to the false attempts.

2. Organization Reporting

We may immediately forward the suspicious email or message to the legitimate organization being responsible, such as the bank or company when ever experienced such falsehood.

3. Authority Reporting

We can also notify the relevant authorities such as the Anti Phishing Working Group (APWG) or the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) about the phishing attempts with all relevant information’s to aid in the investigation.

1. Email Phishing

Email phishing is very common type of phishing and a spam email are treated like are sent from a trusted source and the recipient clicks on any malicious link and end up providing the sensitive information to the attackers

2. CEO Fraud

CEO fraud is a popular type of phishing where an attacker tries to act and pretend himself or herself as a company manager and ask to do any financial transactions on a urgent basis from any employee and steal the same amount if successful.

3. Smishing

Phishing can also be done by sending spam text messages where the recipient is asked to click on a link or call a number that result in to fraud and revealing sensitive data.

Reporting phishing attempts is very essential as to prevent new attacks and to protect individuals and organizations from becoming victims of online fraud as well.We need to stay vigilant against the phishing attacks and should take prompt actions by doing the reporting of any suspicious activity to the concerned authority and follow up with the security management tools and technologies to stay protected against cyber threats .

Reporting any suspicious activity timely and immediately without any delay can also help the concerned authorities to take proper action against the cybercriminals and to improve the cyber security measures as well.

What information to include while reporting a phishing attack?

While doing the reporting phishing, we need to attach the suspicious email or message and the sender’s email address and other relevant information whatever applicable.

Do reporting phishing attacks help to trace and catch the phishers and attackers?

Yes, timely and immediate reporting phishing incidents can help the authorities to investigate and potentially arrest the cybercriminals involved in such criminal activities.

Do phishing reporting limited to emails and text messages?

Email and text messages are common phishing tools but phishing reporting should also focus on the phishing attempts via phone calls or fake websites or on social media platforms also.