Phishing expeditions: That’s why the most important thing experts recommend is to listen to your gut (March 19, 2017 Wired article)

A March 19, 2017 Wired article is entitled: “Phishing Scams Even Fool Tech Nerds—Here’s How to Avoid Them.”

An excerpt reads:

“At the heart of phishing is a scam,” says Aaron Higbee, chief technology officer at the phishing research and defense company PhishMe. “The people who are sending a phishing email have to be clever email marketers to get a user to engage.” Often they do this by preying on your emotions.

That’s why the most important thing experts recommend is to listen to your gut. When something feels off, it probably is. But since the whole point of phishing (and its more tailored and targeted counterpart spear phishing) is to get you to do something without raising alarm bells, you need to practice skepticism even when things seems fine. You should be generally reluctant to download attachments and click links, no matter how innocuous they seem or who appears to have sent them.

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A March 17, 2017 CBC article regarding the same topic is entitled: “How not to get hacked: CBC’s Marketplace consumer cheat sheet.”