How Much is a Brand Hurt by Phishy Dealings?

Online phishers are able to cull financial account numbers, personal data, and consumer info. A recent study by YouGov on behalf of CloudMark, Inc. also found that 42% of adults feel that their trust in a brand would be greatly reduced by a phishing attempt using that brand’s identity.

Even though many consumers and account holders know that safeguarding against phishing attempts is most often their own responsibility (1 in 4 think so), they still have decreased trust in any brands that are the victim of phishing scams.

Though brands cannot prevent phishing attempts from happening, large companies can help customers practice “skeptical computing,” which includes such measures as: Avoiding suspicious email messages that claim to be from the brand, using different email addresses and passwords for different sites, using a good spam filter, and manually typing in the URL rather than clicking on the hyperlink when a message looks even remotely suspicious.

Phishing image by KErosEnE [cc, 2.0]