In such cases, the perpetrators tend to register a domain name which closely resembles the official websites of such institutions, and/or host websites thereon which may be identical or closely similar to the original ones. Knowing this, ‘phishers’ attempt to capture our attention by engaging in ‘typosquatting’.
Therefore, we prioritize our attention on emails we believe are likely to be necessary or urgent, such as those from banks, hospitals, medical institutions, financial institutions, educational institutions, etc. The perpetrators of such typoscams are well aware that most busy individuals do not have the time to carefully scrutinize each and every email dropping into their flooded inboxes. Internet users can be targeted to disclose personal information under the guise of medical assistance or for registering for an ever elusive vaccine. “Typo-phishing” or “typo-squatting” is not a new menace, but has reared its ugly head in this time of global crisis in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Typo-Phishing”, “Typoscams” or “Typosquatting” While this is not a new concept, this is something which assumes great importance in this day and age, when such scams/phishing can spill-over in the pharma world/industry due to the prevalence of COVID-19 and vaccines and such. However, con-artists/criminals/scammers/ ‘phishers’, trying to keep a step ahead of security practices, have come up with ingenious and nefarious new methodologies to trap users – which have brought to the fore concepts such as “typosquatting”.
Correspondingly, there have been increasing number of initiatives to make the general public cautious and aware of such scams and have the presence of mind not to fall into such traps. Additionally, we also receive innumerable unsolicited e-mails from a variety of enterprises, many of which are blatantly scams, that we are constrained to delete from our inboxes on a daily basis. Unsolicited calls for such ‘scams’ have been there for decades. Many of us have at one point of time or the other disconnected such unsolicited calls in frustration. “ Hi, this is ABCD from XYZ Credit Card Company, you have been selected for a cash prize of 1,00,000 rupees!” “ Hello, this is from &*&^ Bank, you are being given a loan of Rs.
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