iQuanti: Phishing continues to be the weapon of choice for cybercriminals and is one of the top data security problems facing businesses worldwide. 

Phishing is a cybercrime that cybercriminals deploy to steal your personal information by disguising themselves as trustworthy entities or organizations to trick you into willingly giving them your details.

Below are five common phishing attacks that you should learn to recognize.

1. Email and spam phishing

The most common phishing technique is via emailing and spam messaging. Cybercriminals send thousands, even millions, of users requests to fill out personal information and use whatever information they receive for malicious activities. Most messages prompt the user with an urgent, attention-grabbing subject that requires them to log in to view.

2. Spear phishing

Spear phishing is more of a professional scam. Where traditional phishing attacks target a mass audience, spear phishing is more targeted. The attacker in a spear-phishing attack usually has a more targeted approach on a person or organization they want to breach and tries to obtain more lucrative information than just a credit card number.

If your professional team has not had security awareness training, they are easy targets for a spear-phishing attack.

3. Vishing (voice phishing)

Vishing, a combination of "voice" and "phishing," is like email phishing but on the phone. The caller uses automated voice messaging to steal confidential information.

The caller identification of a vishing call is usually fraudulent, and the spoofed number could appear to be coming from someone familiar or a 1-800-number. In addition, the scammer may ask the victim to dial a number on the call, allowing the cyberattacker to get personal details while on the line.

Vishing is a valuable tool for criminals because their target may not have time to think the situation through before providing information.

4. Smishing (SMS Phishing)

Smishing is a text message or SMS-based phishing scam. Smishing was more popular years ago, but cybercriminals have neglected smishing for a while. Unfortunately, smishing is making a comeback and is now all too common. 

5. Search engine phishing

Some phishing scams involve search engines that direct the target to a fraudulent product website that probably offers an exceptional low-cost deal for a product or service.

However, when the user attempts to enter their credit card details, they are collected by phishing cybercriminals.

Final thoughts

You may not immediately know if you are the victim of a phishing scam. Imagine ignoring a message from your mother asking you to check a product she wants or your boss asking you to look at an article - would you ignore it? Well, you might if you're aware!

Phishing attacks work best if the target does not understand phishing scams and techniques. So, educate yourself and do not give out your social security number, credit card information, log-in credentials, and anything else that should be private on the internet. Erring on the side of caution can only help you stay protected.