Phishing campaigns: How to protect yourself from them

What is a phishing campaign?

A phishing campaign is a cyberattack in which cybercriminals use fraudulent communications to steal sensitive information, such as credit card details. Phishing involves sending an email pretending to be someone a user knows or a trustworthy organization. If the target falls for the cyberattack, they may click a malicious link in the email and potentially have their login credentials, billing information, and other sensitive data stolen. However, you can protect yourself from phishing and other social engineering attacks in a few ways. First, you need to learn to recognize what you’re dealing with.

How does a phishing campaign work?

In a phishing campaign, a hacker poses as a trusted source, such as someone you know or a brand you trust. They use spoofed emails to get their targets to click on malicious links and enter sensitive information into seemingly legitimate (but fake) websites.

An easy way to remember how a phishing campaign works is by splitting it into these three phases:

• Bait. Scammers lure users in with an email that appears to be from a legitimate entity like a business or government agency. They ask a user to click a link so the user will take an action like logging into an account on a fake landing page.
• Hook. Threat actors play on users’ emotions. Malicious emails make users stressed enough about a fraudulent payment or excited enough about a big discount that they won’t look too closely to ensure a website is authentic.
• Catch. When a target clicks a link and types in their financial information or downloads spyware (a type of malware that can monitor or control computer use) onto their computer, the cybercriminal has achieved their goal. In these phishing attacks, threat actors sometimes sell users’ sensitive data to other cybercriminals, so users have to deal with social engineering attacks on multiple fronts.

The main types of phishing campaigns

The term “phishing campaign” usually refers to a cybercriminal sending spoofed emails to a broad group of email recipients. However, hackers launch other types of phishing campaigns as well.

Spear phishing

Unlike a phishing campaign, a spear phishing campaign is a more advanced, targeted attack against particular individuals or companies. Spear phishing emails typically target any employee in an organization. Spear phishing attacks can be particularly destructive at users’ places of work since threat actors can gain unauthorized access to trade secrets and other confidential information. This attack often results in financial losses, a damaged reputation, and other serious consequences.

Whaling

Whaling is a phishing campaign that targets high-ranking business executives to steal sensitive information. This type of spear phishing attack is called “whaling” because the prime target tends to be very important to the organization. An example of whaling is CEO fraud, where threat actors use privileged access to claim to be the CEO of a company. Scammers do this to trick users into sharing financial information.

Vishing (voice phishing)

Vishing is basically the same as phishing but with one key difference. While phishing attempts rely on phishing emails, vishing scams only use phone calls and Voice over IP (VoIP) technology to lure victims.

Smishing (SMS phishing)

Smishing is another cybercrime similar to phishing and vishing. But unlike a phishing campaign, a smishing campaign uses text messages. The hacker aims to steal information or trick victims into installing malicious code on their mobile devices for further attacks.

Examples of phishing campaigns

Even once people know what a phishing campaign is, it can still be easy to fall for a phishing email when faced with one in real life. As said, knowledge is the most valuable tool you have when it comes to preventing phishing attacks. Seeing examples of these scams can help you spot them in your inbox.

• Advance-fee. Most of us have heard of the Nigerian Prince scam, where a foreign prince has apparently inherited a large sum of money but needs to transfer the funds to your bank account to access it. In exchange for this “help,” the victim is promised a cut of the funds. However, they are first asked to pay a fee (taxes, bank fees, or processing fees) to facilitate the transfer, only to be scammed out of their money.
• Email upgrade. In this type of phishing campaign, users will receive suspicious emails that appear to be from a trusted email provider like Outlook, saying that they need to upgrade their Microsoft Office 365 accounts. Emails like this will try to threaten users with the possibility of their accounts being deleted if they don’t take action.
• Fake invoice. This phishing campaign pressures users to submit payment for something they never ordered or received. Cybercriminals often target financial departments with this attack, but others could fall victim to a phishing campaign like this.

Signs of a phishing campaign

Email providers’ spam filters catch most phishing emails but not all of them. With how convincing phishers’ malicious links and fake websites have become, it is incredibly difficult to tell the difference between phishing messages and legitimate emails.

One of the best ways to increase your phishing awareness is by learning to look for the signs. As sophisticated as phishing emails are, several markers can still give them away. Here are some signs of a phishing campaign to watch out for.

You got a message that asks you to share personal information

The main goal of phishing campaigns is to steal users’ information, so the sender of a phishing email will likely ask for some form of private data they can use to commit identity theft and other cybercrimes.

Not many friends, coworkers, or organizations would make an unsolicited request for such information in an email. You can always contact whoever the sender is supposed to be directly by phone or their official email to ensure that the message you received is genuine.

Message sender looks suspicious

You may not be in the practice of looking closely at the sender of each email you open, but it’s a good habit to acquire. If the email is supposedly from a brand, the domain should match the email address on the contact page of the brand’s website. Watch out for slightly misspelled domain names, like “@starlbucks” or something similar.

If you have a Gmail account, check for a question mark next to the sender’s email address. This means the email address isn’t authenticated and could be coming from someone other than who the sender claims to be.

You spot a suspicious-looking link

Looking out for shady links is another way to keep yourself safe from phishing campaigns. Many of the same factors that apply to a suspicious message sender also apply to links. You want to be sure that the link’s domain matches the brand’s official website and to look out for any misspellings.

If you hover your mouse over the link, you can see the URL without having to click and potentially download malware onto your computer. If you’re using a phone, just press your finger down on the link instead of tapping it to see the URL.

What to do if you are already a victim of a phishing campaign

If you click on a phishing link, you need to act quickly. Clicking a malicious link might potentially cause some serious issues, especially if your browser and operating system are not up to date, but you can minimize the damage by taking the right steps:

• Don’t interact with the fake website.
• Disconnect from the internet.
• Check for malware.
• Back up your files.
• Change your passwords.

Once you take these steps, remember to report the phishing campaign to both your email client and federal agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center. Reporting phishing emails will help protect others from falling victim to the same scams.

How to prevent a phishing campaign

Whether or not you’ve been the victim of a phishing email campaign already, you’ll certainly want to avoid them in the future. Here are some of the steps you can take:

• Use a link checker. NordVPN’s link checker is designed to help avoid phishing attacks. All you need to do is copy a suspicious link from an email or text before clicking, paste it into the link checker, and click “Analyze.” The link checker compares your link against a list of websites known for scams or hosting malware. The list is regularly updated through third-party sources and is one of the biggest data sources for malicious URLs.
• Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA). Adding an extra layer of protection through MFA can significantly reduce the impact of a successful phishing attack. Even if login credentials are compromised, MFA can stop unauthorized access to your accounts and sensitive data.
• Change and strengthen passwords as needed. If one of your passwords got leaked, change it immediately and create a strong and unique password to have instead of the old one. Use a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Keep software and systems updated. Ensure all devices, software, and security systems are regularly updated with the latest patches. Many phishing attacks exploit vulnerabilities in outdated software, so keeping everything current helps protect against potential threats.