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57% Russians could not tell legitimate website from scam

Russian internet users failed to distinguish a phishing copy of Vkontakte website from the real social network. 

Over half of survey takers (57%) pointed to the fraudulent website as the real one, according to the statistics released by the Avast cybersecurity company. Over 1,000 users participated in the study. They were asked to identify the real home page of the Vkontakte social network based on two screenshots one of which was of a phishing site. Some 57% respondents failed the task.

Almost the same number of people has no idea whatsoever what phishing is. However, 14% Russians confirmed they had dealt with phishing attacks in the past. Of these scam victims, 46% encountered phishing websites, 25% opened phishing emails and another 16% fell victims to phishing phone calls. Malefactors plot large-scale attacks using social engineering and make users act as needed under false pretenses – for example, transfer their money from a bank account.

Avast warns against the growing threat of phishing. Almost 2 mio attacks were prevented in August alone.

“It is easier to predict a person’s behavior and trick him than to hack the system,” believes Alexey Fyodorov, Managing Director of Avast Russia and CIS. “In August 2019, we blocked 1,942,770 phishing attempts targeting 216,364 Russian users.”

The company offers four tips on how to avoid the attacks. First of all, antivirus software must be installed on all devices. Users should also manually enter a URL in their browsers. Even if they see the green lock indicating a secure connection, it is not yet time to relax. The green lock only guarantees that connection is encrypted while six out of ten hackers now use encryption mode. Another recommendation is to never open suspicious emails or click on any links in such emails.

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