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Phishing and Click Fraud: Evil Tools of Scammers

Everyone knows not to click a suspicious email… Wrong.

Phishing attacks are more rampant than ever before and cost organizations around the globe $4.5 billion every year and over half of internet users get at least one phishing email per day. Unfortunately, no matter what companies do, some phishing emails will always make it to the inbox. And those messages are extremely effective—97% of people around the globe cannot identify a sophisticated phishing email.

Here are 5 Tips on How To Identify Malicious Emails:

TIP 1: Look But Do Not Click

If you see an email link that looks suspicious, do not open or click on it. Open another browser and type the web address into the browser.

TIP 2: Check For Spelling Mistakes

One of the most common ways to detect fraud is through noticing spelling errors.

TIP 3: Analyze the Salutation

Is the email addressed to a vague “Valued Customer?” If so, watch out—legitimate businesses will often use a personal salutation with your first and last name.

TIP 4: Do not Believe Everything You See

Phishers are extremely good at what they do. Just because an email has convincing brand logos, language, and a seemingly valid email address, does not mean that it’s legitimate.

TIP 5: Beware of Urgent or Threatening Language in the Subject Line

Invoking a sense of urgency or fear is a common phishing tactic. Beware of subject lines that claim your “account has been suspended” or your account had an “unauthorized login attempt.”

Trojan Horse Malware with click fraud installer

The connection between Phishing and Click Fraud is that the virus that is in the malicious email could easily be what is called a Trojan horse.

Inside the Trojan horse can live fileless threats programmed to perform click-fraud operations.

According to CSO Online, Click Fraud often…

…starts with a phishing email that installs the Asprox botnet malware. That, in turn, gets an update from its command and control center that includes a malware downloader, a rootkit and a click-fraud installer.

The click-fraud activity continues in the background, even after all the user files were encrypted.

And it gets worse — after the malware finally kills its host, it can move on to other parts of the network, and start the cycle over with new machines.

ClickFrauds – We have built a Click Fraud Detection Tool to help you fight fraudulent clicks on your AdWord campaigns.