US tech giant Meta is the brand most impersonated by phishing scams, with more than 10,000 scams verified in the past four years. These scams often include messages that appear to be from a trusted brand, urging the recipient to click a link or provide personal information. This could lead to the ransomware being installed on the victim's device or the fraudsters having the information needed to gain access to the accounts. Other brands like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft also have a large number of phishing scams.
In the case of Meta, phishing messages can range from credible notifications about friend requests to outrageous claims of winning a Facebook lottery. According to Mailsuite's Yuka Kato, social media users are particularly susceptible to emotionally charged messages such as the “someone has died” scam or suggestions that personal data or browsing behavior may have been leaked. With the rise of AI spam accounts, Facebook phishing attempts are expected to become more sophisticated.
Interestingly, four international companies, all based in Japan, impersonate more than Meta. The most spoofed international brand is the Japanese telecommunications company AU by KDDI, with 18,964 scams since January 2020. The most affected brand in the banking and finance sector is the Japanese payment brand JCB. Japan's National Police Agency attributes this trend to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the activities of the North Korean cyber attack group Lazarus.
More than a quarter of impersonation scams involve IT and technology brands, with banking and financial services following closely behind. This could be due to the high levels of customer engagement and trust of these companies, as well as the valuable credentials. Video game distribution platform Steam and the Internal Revenue Service are also frequently impersonated.
The report also revealed some unexpected findings. For example, Polish e-commerce giant Allegro was heavily targeted in 2023, with 6,399 verified reports in one year. One scam tricked email recipients into logging into a fake Allegro website to collect a bonus, giving scammers access to victims' store accounts.
Kato advises professionals to verify any email they receive before clicking a link or sharing data. He warns that as long as networked computers exist, there will be cybercrime. However, the irony of cybercrimes like phishing is that they exploit human nature and vulnerability, whether it's the abused trust in spoofed e-mails and fake websites or the panic that sets in when a message gives a short answer
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