Four Common Tricks Cybercriminals Use To Snare Victims Online

Cybercriminals are a sneaky bunch and they have an arsenal of tricks up their sleeves to beguile unsuspecting victims online. We’ve listed out a few common methods used by these tricksters.

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Security vendor Kaspersky Labs has listed some common tricks cyberattackers use to lure unsuspecting victims into downloading malware or doing things they don’t want to.

#1 Pop-ups with hidden hyperlinks

As if pop-up ads themselves aren’t annoying enough already, some scammers will turn the “close” button to a hyperlink that automatically make you share an endorsement of a website on your social media accounts.

#2 The “free full speed download” button

You’ll find them on hosting and torrent websites. It’s usually difficult to distinguish these fake download buttons from the real one. Often, when you click through you will be prompted to download some kind of software to access faster download speeds for the files you want. Unfortunately, you’re likely to end up with adware instead and getting rid of them is a pain in the neck.

#3 The “Your PC is infected!” pop-up messages

These kinds of fake pop-ups are particularly common and it uses scare tactics to get users to click on links that will direct them to download phony antivirus software that is actually malware or redirect them to scam websites.

#4 Software drivers/patches download offers

This one is self-explanatory, but it all leads down the same path: malware.

You can find out more about some other common tricks used by attackers over at Kaspersky’s official blog.

[Via Kaspersky Blog]


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