Review: STOP PHISHING

Everyone is familiar with phishing emails. But how do we manage to identify them as such? Together!

As part of European Cyber Security Month 2020, organised by ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) and coordinated by the BSI (German Federal Office for Information Security), we organised an awareness-raising campaign in October. Under the title PHISHERS FRITZE PHISHT FRESH PHISHE, we provided tips and advice on how to identify phishing emails.

How to recognise phishing emails?

This is what Ellen Leipelt explains in our Breaking News:

Review

We start with a review and summary of some identified phishing emails that we presented as part of our awareness campaign:

This email lures you in with an advert from 1&1. Only at second glance do you realise that this email was supposedly sent by Amazon. The combination of these two brands in one offer is also rather unlikely.

Furthermore, the broken German in the subject line is very conspicuous and unusual.

At first glance, the design of this phishing email is close to the original. However, the asterisks in the sender line are a little too bold for a professional brand.

Here too, it is worth taking a look at the sender address and comparing it with the sender.

The form of address varies between "you" and "you", giving the impression that individual parts of the text have been replaced.

An email from the management should definitely look different. The sender address usually contains the full name of the management and the name of the company. It is also rather unusual for marketing to be responsible for the bank accounts.

Practice makes perfect

It is important to familiarise yourself with the topic of phishing emails so that you will soon be able to recognise them in your sleep. This makes dealing with them safer and reduces the chances of successful attacks. We have analysed other "exciting" phishing emails for you and provide tips on how to identify them as such.

This email is very professionally copied. The sender's address does not look at all fake and there are no spelling mistakes or other anomalies in the text.

If you cannot tell from these clues whether it is a phishing email, it is worth searching the web for this sender's address. A recent article on Verbraucherschutz.com warns against these fake emails.

Third-party providers are trying to make money by clicking on the links.

The next email is a typical example with a sender address consisting of a jumble of numbers, letters and special characters. It should be immediately clear that this is a fake e-mail. The structure of the text is also interesting. It starts out well written (presumably taken from the original), then comes the conspicuous part: no more correct German and a sudden change of subject!

The Verbraucherschutz.com. Large and successful companies in particular are misused for phishing campaigns. Many consumers know and trust them. If you have also received this or a similar email, you can report it to Verbraucherschutz.com.

Together for more security in cyberspace

Successful awareness-raising measures lead to success!

Want to know where else phishing traps are lurking?

Then read our blog post on the topic: AM HAKEN: PHISHING-FALLE WORLD WIDE WEB

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Stay safe and sound!