Spain in world’s top 20 countries most affected by phishing attacks

Your voicemail message could save your life

Your voicemail message could save your life. image: wikipedia

SPAIN is reportedly among the top 20 countries in the world most affected by phishing attacks

According to Kaspersky, during a study conducted by the company, using its Safe Messaging function, within its Internet Security for Android solution, it was revealed that  Spain is among the world’s top 20 countries most affected by ‘phishing‘ attacks through popular messaging applications such as Telegram and WhatsApp, the latter allegedly being the one that accounts for 90 per cent of the attempts of this type of cyberattack.

The company reportedly carried out its study by analysing clicks on ‘phishing’ links in messaging applications and discovered that a total of 91,242 detections around the world were recorded in the period analysed.

Between the months of December 2020 and May 2021, the highest proportion of fraudulent links detected in their study were on WhatsApp (89.6 per cent), followed by other messaging applications such as Telegram (5.6 per cent), Viber (4.7 per cent), and Hangouts (less than 1 per cent).

Russia headed the list as the country with the highest number of ‘phishing’ attacks, accounting for 46 per cent of the total, followed by Brazil with 15 per cent, and India with 7 per cent, with the study revealing an average of 480 attack attempts being recorded worldwide, every day.

In a statement released by the company showing the study results, Spain reportedly ranked in 14th position in the Kaspersky list of countries affected by ‘phishing’ attacks through Whatsapp, and 16th in the list of Telegram attempt

Statistics from Kaspersky showed that Viber and Hangouts had received fewer attack attempts, with Russia again leading the field with the highest number of cases detected in Viber, with 89 per cent, with 5 per cent in Ukraine, and 2 per cent in Belarus, while in hangouts, most of the cases have occurred in the United States and France, with 39 per cent each.

Experts from the company warn the public about the so-called ‘chain scheme’, a common technique, in which a scammer asks the user to share the fraudulent link between their contacts, which seems authentic to other users, since the message came from a known person, while also warning that cybercriminals often use WhatsApp and other messaging services to communicate with users they have found on other legitimate platforms, such as accommodation reservation services, and use them as a communication method for sending fraudulent messages.

Even though the messages and web pages look real, the hyperlinks are most likely misspelled, or redirected to a different location, so Kaspersky experts recommend vigilance in checking for any small spelling mistakes in the links, and to also be wary of any links or attachments that you might receive in a message, as reported by granadadigital.es.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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