Phishing

 Phishing

When we covered phishing and catfishing, I did not have to imagine any of it. I run a sports social media company, EverythingU, and I deal with this kind of thing constantly. Managing a network of campus pages with a large following makes me an obvious target. People try to sell me things I never asked for, and others message me pretending to be someone I know when it is clear they are not.

What the readings helped me see is why these attempts work on other people even when they look obvious to me. Phishing relies on borrowed trust. The message looks like it comes from a person, a brand, or a company you already recognize, so your guard comes down before you have a chance to think. Catfishing does the same thing with a personality. It builds a friendly, believable identity that people want to trust.

My job gives me an advantage. I see so many of these messages that I notice the patterns they follow. Their tone will be slightly off, the request comes too fast, and the person knows just enough about me to sound real but not enough to be real. I can tell when the message is sent out to a group of people most of the time as well and is not meant for just me.  Repetition has trained my instincts, but I still am not perfect.

But I don't think that makes me immune. The people running these scams only need to get lucky once, while I have to be careful every time. A busy day, a message that arrives at the wrong moment, or someone using a name I actually know could be enough. That connects to my last post about being persuaded without noticing. Scams work best when we are distracted, and social media is built to keep us distracted.

My takeaway is that experience helps, but it is not a replacement for checking. When someone I don't know asks me for something, the safest response is to slow down and verify who they are first.  You can never be too careful when dealing with something like this. 

All it takes is one link to accidentally click, and my account and everything I have worked for, is gone.

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