I haven't won the lottery for ages. And it's been a while since an unknown relative died and left me a fortune. But I still get phishing emails quite often, and they are getting more sophisticated.
Are you a smart phish?
Anglers use lures to catch fish. The idea is that the lure should look and move like real bait: it must trick the fish into believing that it is good to eat. The best lure depends on the fish, presumably because different fish like different food.
The term "phishing" is derived from fishing. Hackers use emails to "fish" for personal data from the "sea" of users. And like enthusiastic anglers, they try out different lures to get users to take the bait.
Can you outsmart the phisherman?
The banks constantly remind you that they will never ask you to click on a link in an email. But people stop listening to the same message after a while. And other emails often contain links - like the invoice from your plumber who uses cloud-based accounting software.
Some phishing emails are very easy to spot. But many are becoming more sophisticated and harder to identify.
So here's a challenge: take the OpenDNS quiz and find out if you can outsmart the scammers:
https://www.opendns.com/phishing-quiz/
Be careful when you throw out the trash
We rely on email filters to keep out a lot of spam, but they are far from foolproof. My (real) bank statements were blocked recently when our email provider upgraded the spam blocker. And I have to WhatsApp delegates in case their Zoom or Webex invitations ended up in their trash. So please check your trash before deleting it.