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Email phishing is a type of cyber attack where criminals send fraudulent emails that appear to come from trusted sources to trick recipients into revealing sensitive information. These deceptive messages often mimic legitimate organizations like banks, social media platforms, or employers to steal login credentials, financial data, or personal information. Phishing attacks can also deliver malware through malicious links or attachments that infect the recipient's device.
Email phishing poses significant risks to both individuals and organizations. For email marketers, phishing undermines trust in email as a communication channel, making recipients more suspicious of legitimate messages. Understanding phishing helps you design emails that don't trigger spam filters or appear suspicious to recipients. It also emphasizes the importance of proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to protect your domain from being spoofed in phishing campaigns targeting your customers.
Email phishing typically begins with attackers researching their targets and crafting messages that appear legitimate. They use social engineering techniques like urgency, fear, or authority to pressure recipients into acting quickly without thinking. Common tactics include spoofing sender addresses to look like trusted contacts, creating fake login pages that capture credentials, and embedding malicious links disguised as legitimate URLs. Attackers may also use attachments containing malware or direct victims to compromised websites that exploit browser vulnerabilities.
Common phishing indicators include generic greetings instead of your name, urgent language pressuring immediate action, suspicious sender addresses that don't match the claimed organization, spelling and grammar errors, requests for sensitive information, and mismatched or shortened URLs that hide the true destination.
Immediately disconnect from the internet to prevent data transmission. Change passwords for any accounts you entered credentials for. Run a full antivirus scan on your device. Monitor your accounts for unauthorized activity and consider enabling fraud alerts. Report the incident to your IT department and the organization being impersonated.
Phishing indirectly harms email deliverability by making recipients and email providers more cautious. If your domain lacks proper authentication, your emails may be flagged as suspicious. Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC proves your emails are legitimate and protects your sender reputation from being damaged by spoofers.
Regular phishing casts a wide net with generic messages sent to thousands of recipients. Spear phishing targets specific individuals or organizations with personalized messages based on researched information. Spear phishing is more dangerous because the tailored content makes it harder to detect as fraudulent.
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