Google has released some surprising information regarding online scams, revealing that the most competent phishing emails are successful 45% of the time.
Research conducted by Google in partnership with the University of California has revealed that even though we may think that we would never be caught out by a phishing email gunning for our personal information and bank details, just under 50% of us find ourselves unwittingly succumbing to scammers.
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Though Google revealed in its blog that the company has “reduced hijackings by more than 99% over the last few years,” it was also noted how phishers still gain access to their details by using old techniques that many would assume no one falls for anymore.
In the post, Google writes: “Our research found some fake websites worked a whopping 45% of the time. On average, people visiting the fake pages submitted their info 14% of the time, and even the most obviously fake sites still managed to deceive 3% of people. Considering that an attacker can send out millions of messages, these success rates are nothing to sneeze at.”
Google also posted some instructions for users of its Gmail service, asking them to sign up for their 2-step verification process (which you can do so here) which makes it more difficult for phishers to get a hold of personal info and data.
