Skip to main content

Beyond Phishing: Different Tactics Same Goal

Published Date

Beyond Phishing : Different Tactics, Same Goal

Social engineering can take many forms, but the objective is often the same – to gain your trust and influence you into sharing information, providing access, or taking an action you normally wouldn’t.

Know how you may be targeted :

•    Phishing. Deceptive emails designed to influence you into clicking a link, visiting a fake website, sharing information, entering credentials or verification codes, authenticating a request, and more.

•    Smishing. Phishing through text messages, often disguised as urgent alerts, delivery notices, account warnings and more.

•    Vishing. Fraudulent phone calls where attackers impersonate a trusted person or organization to obtain information or influence your actions.

•    Quishing. Malicious QR codes designed to direct you to fake websites, login pages, or other harmful content.

•    Pretexting. Attackers create a believable story or relationship –often posing as a customer, vendor, colleague, or support team – to establish trust before making a request.

•    Whaling. Highly targeted phishing attacks aimed at executives or senior leaders, often using convincing business scenarios to obtain sensitive information, credentials, or financial access.