Companies that deal with financial information often get their hands on some pretty sensitive data. Users are usually more than willing to hand this data over too because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making it easier for them to conduct their necessary transactions. However, the fact that these companies are so widely trusted with information that people means that they are a popular target for impersonation among phishing attackers and the like.
This also extends to ecommerce platforms, but companies like PayPal are among the most widely impersonated companies for phishing attacks so far. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that if someone or the other receives an email that has been sent by PayPal, and if this email looks reasonably legitimate, they might not question things all that much and would instead opt to give sensitive information and log into their accounts to see what is going on.
A new report from Kaspersky team has confirmed that both PayPal as well as Mastercard are being most widely impersonated for phishing attacks. In fact, 37.8% of all phishing attacks in 2021 involved the attackers trying to impersonate PayPal alone. Mastercard was impersonated 12.2% of the time, followed by American Express at 10% and Visa at 9.4%. It should be noted that incidences where PayPal was impersonated actually exceeded those of Visa, Mastercard and American Express combined.
That might be due to the reason that people are more likely to log in to their PayPal than they might be with other services. Consumers need to be made wary of the dangers of logging in by clicking on a link that you have received in an email. Doing so can give malicious actors open access to your systems which is something that you are most definitely going to struggle to recover from. This is something that major financial institutions need to start talking about as well lest they keep getting implicated in this manner.
Read next: WhatsApp Launched 'Code Verify' Browser Extension Which Increases The Security Of Online Conversations
This also extends to ecommerce platforms, but companies like PayPal are among the most widely impersonated companies for phishing attacks so far. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that if someone or the other receives an email that has been sent by PayPal, and if this email looks reasonably legitimate, they might not question things all that much and would instead opt to give sensitive information and log into their accounts to see what is going on.
A new report from Kaspersky team has confirmed that both PayPal as well as Mastercard are being most widely impersonated for phishing attacks. In fact, 37.8% of all phishing attacks in 2021 involved the attackers trying to impersonate PayPal alone. Mastercard was impersonated 12.2% of the time, followed by American Express at 10% and Visa at 9.4%. It should be noted that incidences where PayPal was impersonated actually exceeded those of Visa, Mastercard and American Express combined.
That might be due to the reason that people are more likely to log in to their PayPal than they might be with other services. Consumers need to be made wary of the dangers of logging in by clicking on a link that you have received in an email. Doing so can give malicious actors open access to your systems which is something that you are most definitely going to struggle to recover from. This is something that major financial institutions need to start talking about as well lest they keep getting implicated in this manner.
Read next: WhatsApp Launched 'Code Verify' Browser Extension Which Increases The Security Of Online Conversations