NetworkTigers on why protecting customers from phishing scams isn’t just about security—it’s about trust.
Phishing attacks targeting your customers aren’t just cruel to those who are taken advantage of. It can also hurt your business by calling into question the legitimacy of your correspondences and ads. Furthermore, a customer burned by a scammer posing as a representative of your company, or by a website that imitates yours, could blame you for the trouble, especially if they never fully realize that a criminal tricked them.
Phishing attacks are the most common threat faced by internet users, and this trend shows no signs of slowing down as they become easier to develop and launch. Thanks to AI models, phishing attacks have increased by 4,151% since the debut of ChatGPT in 2022, according to SlashNext’s “The State of Phishing 2024” report.
What makes phishing so lucrative for scammers and so challenging to stamp out is the fact that it exploits human beings as opposed to technology. This means that adequate protections against it lie almost exclusively in the hands of those on the receiving end of it.
To that end, it is on organizations to help keep their customers privy to the dangers of phishing scams, how to identify them, and how to report them.
Educate your customers
Customers that are reminded of the existence of phishing scams and the various ways they may manifest are less likely to take the bait. Whether by text or email, reaching out to customers with regular newsletters or links to blog posts and articles about phishing campaigns, especially any new tactics that are currently trending, can make them pause before clicking the next link they receive.
Let your customers know who to trust
Be sure to tell your customers the avenues through which your organization will and will not communicate with them. Call out any apps or platforms that you use as well as those that you don’t.
Illustrate what an email address associated with your business looks like and remind people to watch out for typos or sneaky punctuation, both of which are common ways that cybercriminals attempt to make the origin of their emails look authentic.
Provide your customers with information about the ways they can verify whether or not a communication from your organization is legitimate. Remind them that they will never be asked to submit any banking or login credential details over email or by phone.
Be sure to provide contact information that they can use to verify any communications if they are suspicious.
Safeguard your customer’s accounts
Login credentials are often targeted by scammers looking to steal payment information or see if their victim uses the same username and password across other accounts that can also be taken over.
- Require strong passwords. Set up requirements that demand users create passwords that contain a large number of random letters, numbers, and characters. When they are prompted to create their passwords, be sure to include instructions that tell them not to use names, dates, or anything else that may be easily guessed.
- Require multi-factor authentication. While not perfect, this extra layer of account protection is usually all it takes to encourage opportunistic scammers to look for easier targets.
- Set up security alerts. Alerts that tell customers if their account was accessed, or if access was attempted, from an unusual location or device can help them secure an account under attack. However, criminals will use fake alerts in attempts to steal credentials as well, so be sure to let your customers know how to tell if any they receive are real.
Turn your employees into a layer of defense
Training employees to recognize the signs of a phishing attempt is paramount, as a successful breach of your business can put the entirety of your customer base at risk.
Employees should be regularly updated on trending scams and refreshed on how to identify malicious content. A company culture that encourages communication can foster the reporting of suspicious activity.
Limiting the information that employees can access is also a wise security decision. Keeping private customer data away from employees who don’t need it for their daily work can prevent a breach if the worker’s account is hacked. It also can prevent disgruntled employees from sabotaging your customer information or otherwise innocent workers from accidentally sharing data with a scammer.
Prevent website spoofing
Discovering a version of your company’s website on the internet that was designed exclusively to take advantage of your customers can be an emotional, reputational, and financial nightmare. While one may feel that laws exist to prevent such a violation, website spoofers couldn’t care less about infringing on the copyright of your logo, slogans, or branding. The more legitimate they can make their sites look, the more successful they will be at stealing and storing customer payment information and login data.
Website spoofing is alarmingly common, with the U.S. Justice Department seizing just four web domains in April of 2024 that were used to create more than 40,000 fraudulent sites.
While it’s impossible to completely erase the possibility of your site being spoofed, there are measures you can take to make it more difficult:
- Choose a reputable domain registrar. Domain registration details are public, making it easy for criminals to see information that they can use to make their fake sites appear real. A reputable registrar will use their information in place of yours, keeping criminal eyes off of your personal contact data.
- Set up a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. An SSL certificate provides digital proof that your website is legitimate. It also allows you to use HTTPS for your site URL, which provides better security via encryption. Obtaining an SSL certificate is challenging for fraudsters, and major browsers flag and call out any sites without them. This alert is often enough to discourage users from continuing to engage with the fake site.
- Register similar domain names. Scammers often trick people by creating domains that appear to be spelled the same as authentic ones at first glance. These sites take advantage of the fact that people rarely inspect the URL in their browser for unusual letters or characters. A common tactic criminals use is to register domains that customers may unwittingly visit after mistakenly inserting a typo into a web address.
If your company’s site has already been spoofed, you need to report it to the fake site’s hosting provider as soon as possible. To do so, you should perform a WHOIS domain lookup to view contact information associated with the site’s host.
Protecting customers from phishing scams is not just a best practice—it’s a necessity for maintaining trust and safeguarding your business. Scammers are becoming more sophisticated, and without proactive measures, your customers could fall victim to fraud that tarnishes your reputation. By educating your audience, securing accounts, training employees, and preventing website spoofing, you create a stronger defense against these ever-evolving threats. A vigilant approach to protecting customers from phishing scams ensures their safety while reinforcing your credibility in an increasingly digital world.
About NetworkTigers
NetworkTigers is the leader in the secondary market for Grade A, seller-refurbished networking equipment. Founded in January 1996 as Andover Consulting Group, which built and re-architected data centers for Fortune 500 firms, NetworkTigers provides consulting and network equipment to global governmental agencies, Fortune 2000, and healthcare companies. www.networktigers.com.
