Reverse Email Lookup
Individuals and organizations use email every day. Over the last three decades, email has become a go-to communication method, with most people having 2-3 email accounts and using them for varying purposes. While offering the convenience of speed, efficiency, and archiving, email use also poses the threat of email scams. Scams are regularly changing as technology advances, and email users grow wise to scams. To protect yourself from email scams, it is essential to stay informed about current email scams.
Email scams are emails that attempt to defraud the recipient in some way. A common category of scams is phishing emails. Phishing emails attempt to trick recipients into divulging private information, which is then used for identity theft. Phishing emails can also involve getting the recipients to send money to the sender under false pretenses. Targeted phishing emails are called spear phishing.
Phishing is a widespread occurrence in the U.S. In the first half of 2020, nearly 147,000 phishing attacks were reported. While this is an 11% reduction from the first half of 2019, this number is very high and a serious cybersecurity threat. It is important to note that these numbers do not include unreported occurrences. Many scammed email recipients do not report phishing attacks due to a lack of knowledge or embarrassment.
Phishing accounts for 91% of all data breaches. It is estimated that 1.5 million new phishing sites crop up each month. Business networks attacks are the result of successful spear phishing 95% of the time. Phishing attacks are costly to businesses – the average cost of a phishing attack to a mid-sized company is $1.6 million. For this reason, businesses usually have a budget for cybersecurity protection.
Malware is software that is intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, or computer network. Malware types include computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, ransomware, spyware, adware, rogue software, wiper, and scareware. It is estimated that 92% of malware is delivered by email.
Email scams are not going anywhere, just changing constantly. Exercise caution when clicking into emails that seem suspect, and always refrain from providing personal information in response to emails. Keep yourself educated about emerging scams, and always check the fine details on emails you receive.