Kaspersky announced that in 2022, it managed to block more than 500 million accesses to fake websites worldwide with its anti-phishing system.
Indicating that phishing attacks in Turkey, the Middle East and Africa region have doubled compared to 2021, Kaspersky officials stated that 7,9% of individual and corporate users are affected by phishing attacks. According to the research, the rate of users affected by phishing in Turkey is 7,7%.
Spam and phishing attacks, while not technologically sophisticated, rely on advanced social engineering tactics, making them extremely dangerous for the unaware. Scammers are quite adept at creating phishing web pages that collect private user data or encourage money transfers to scammers. Kaspersky experts also discovered that during 2022, cybercriminals are increasingly turning to phishing. The company's anti-phishing system successfully blocked 2022 attempts to access fake content worldwide in 507.851.735, which is double the total number of attacks blocked in 2021.
The area most frequently targeted by phishing attacks was delivery services. The scammers are sending fake emails that appear to be from reputable delivery companies, claiming that there is a problem with the delivery. The victim, who clicks on a link containing a link to a fake website requesting e-mail, personal information or financial details, may lose identity and bank information that can be sold to dark websites.
Most Frequently Targeted Categories: Online stores and financial services
The categories most frequently targeted by financial phishing were online stores and online financial services. 49,3% of financial phishing attempts in Turkey were made through fake payment systems websites, 27,2% through fake online stores, 23,5% through fake online bank portals.
Kaspersky experts also highlighted a global trend in the phishing environment of 2022: the increase in the distribution of attacks via messengers and most of the blocked attempts come from WhatsApp, followed by Telegram and Viber.
Criminals exploit people's curiosity and desire for privacy by providing fake updates and verified account status on social media platforms, and there is a growing demand for social media credentials among these criminals.