Phishing is used by cybercriminals to trick users and steal their valuable personal information. They normally send emails to a person with an attachment. When users download an attachment, cybercriminals get all their data and threaten them for the sake of money. Their main goal is to trick a user to believe that email is very important and they must need to take some action like download an attachment or click on the link.

The attackers use those kinds of emails that look like someone else on which you have trust, send you an attachment or link. That’s the reason users trust that email and perform specific action which the attacker wants. There are different phishing techniques used by attackers. Normally attackers want a victim to do one of two things.

1. Attackers want to get some sensitive information like usernames and passwords. For this, they send an email with the link and it looks like your bank sends you an email alert and wants to do some action by clicking on the link. When you open the link and enter your sensitive information like username and password or credit card details. Attackers get all your sensitive information and start blackmailing you and demanding money. Attackers normally send spamming emails to millions of people, when a customer of a specific bank sees that email, he thinks that his bank sends him an alert and wants him to perform a specific action which is very necessary. After performing, they lose all their sensitive data and the attacker now has access to the victim’s account.
2. In this way, attackers want to get access to personal data by infecting the victim’s computer. They send an email with an attachment, which has malware. When victims download an attachment, the malware automatically downloads into their computer or mobile, and attackers may lock their computer or get access to victims personal data and start blackmailing them for the sake of money.

There are different types of phishing.

Email phishing

The most common trick used by attackers is email phishing. They send an email through a fake domain and it looks like your bank or co-worker sent you an email and wants you to perform some action like download an attachment or enter some sensitive information. 

Spear phishing

These King of phishing emails send to specific persons, about them criminals already have some or all the information like their name, place, post and email address. 

Whaling

In this king of phishing, attackers attack senior executives of companies. Through this they try to secret information of the company like bank account details and social security numbers.

If you want to save yourself from phishing then you have to use malware protection software. By using these software you can save yourself from any cybercriminals activity.