Email scams are getting more personal – they even fool cybersecurity experts

By Gareth Norris, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychology, Aberystwyth University
Max Eiza, Senior Lecturer in Computer Security, Liverpool John Moores University
Oliver Buckley, Associate professor in cyber security, University of East Anglia

We all like to think we’re immune to scams. We scoff at emails from an unknown sender offering us £2 million, in exchange for our bank details. But the game has changed and con artists have developed new, chilling tactics. They are taking the personal approach and scouring the internet for all the details they can find about us.

Scammers are getting so good at it that even cybersecurity experts are taken in.

One of us (Oliver Buckley) recalls that in 2018 he received an email from the pro-vice chancellor of his university.

This is it, I thought.…

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© The Conversation - Monday, July 11, 2022

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