Study on Cyber-Attacks Based on E-mails

A particularly dangerous and now common type of spam known as "Phishing” attempts to trick recipients into revealing personal and sensitive data, such as passwords, login ID’s, financial information or social security numbers. Recipients are directed to counterfeit and fraudulent websites that are exact duplicates of well-known and respected companies such as eBay, PayPal or large banking institutions and prompted to enter account information. This white paper addresses current issues associated with phishing scams and argues the most probable and likely direction phishing scams will follow in the future. Recommended safe user guidelines are included to help protect users from both current and future phishing attacks.