What are the most spoofed brands for phishing?


Thibaut Keutchayan

January 18, 2022 at 11:30 a.m.

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Phishing

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It is a ranking among the most damaging of the year 2021 which has just been published by Check Point Research. In fact, it gives pride of place to phishing
.

And if you hear more and more about this fraudulent practice, it is also because we are trying to warn you about its dangerousness. Be on your guard and never click on an uncertain link.

Helping pandemic context, DHL is in the lead

Should we still count the millions of euros diverted by phishing? This practice is today among the most used by web pirates. They are indeed more and more to make you believe, despite yourself, that this link received by e-mail or SMS mainly directs you to the official site of your carrier, for example.

In reality, this is not the case, and this explains why the firm DHL arrives at the top of the sad ranking published by Check Point Research of the most imitated sites in 2021. The most imitated company, especially during the months of October, November and December 2021, the DHL brand is used in 23% of phishing attempts, compared to only 9% in 2020. And the ongoing context of COVID-19, which encourages many people to have their products delivered, is the number one asset for online pirates.

You believe that the carrier wants to inform you of the progress of your delivery, that a package is intended for you when in fact you have not even ordered lately, and a single click on the link is enough. It is also enough to put imitations of DHL ahead of those of Microsoft (20%), Google (10%) or even Amazon (4%).

Social networks and their derivatives are not left out

Unfortunately, there are only a few things that marks […] can do to combat phishing attempts. It’s too easy for humans to ignore things like misspelled domains, typos
, incorrect dates or other suspicious details, and that’s what opens the door to further damage. We urge all users to be very mindful of these details when dealing with companies like DHL in the coming months. says Omer Dembinsky, head of the data research group at Check Point Research.

But phishing is not limited to purchases, and social networks are proof of this. A message received from an obscure number at the end of the world on WhatsApp, which rose from sixth to third place in the ranking with 11% of imitations (!), may have aroused the mistrust of many, but unfortunately not all.

LinkedIn, with 8% of imitations, is not left out and goes from eighth to fifth place. Thus, being approached by an unknown person must continue to arouse mistrust. This top 10 of the most imitated firms finally includes FedEx (3%), Roblox (3%), PayPal (2%) and Apple (2%).

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Source: ZDNet



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