List of famous brands that are mostly impersonated for phishing attacks

San Francisco-based IT service provider company, Cloudfare, Inc., has released a new report in which they highlighted fifty impersonated brands that are mostly used by scammers to lure in their targets. Scammers use famous brands; by mimicking them, they trick users into believing they are the real ones and trap them in their phishing scams.

To better understand what phishing is, the security company explained that it is the act of trying to get hands-on someone’s data, including their credentials and bank account information. Unlike other cyberattacks, these scams are carried out using fake URLs for famous brands. The whole phishing operation has gotten so advanced that not even experts can identify the imposter emails.

According to Cloudflare, these kinds of attacks have become the most reported ones since 2022. Due to them being sneaky and hard to identify, the number of victims keeps  increasing. They also potential enough to cause extreme damage to either a targeted individual or a business. The company further explained that being unable to differentiate between legitimate and illegitimate sites has become one of the most difficult challenges that are currently being faced to minimize the threat.

Out of all the top fifty brands, AT&T, the famous telecommunications company, topped the list as the most impersonated brand used to carry out malicious attacks. It was followed by PayPal, a financial technology company. The third position was taken by Window's parent company, Microsoft. Among the top 10 brands, the fourth spot was filled by DHL, a Germany-based logistics company, and Meta was in the fifth spot. The remaining 5 brands included IRS at 6th, Verizon at 7th, and Mitsubishi at 8th. Companies such as Adobe and Amazon were also in the top 10. While Meta took the 5th spot, its social media services, including Instagram and WhatsApp, also made the list. The company didn’t just highlight the brands; they even shared the domains used by scammers to lure in their victims.

Read next: Analysis: The most frequently compromised websites are Facebook and Instagram
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World