Mobile phone phishing scams jumped by 37% in the first quarter of 2020

Hackers are targeting smartphones more and more as they launch phishing scams to gain accesses to companies’ digital infrastructure, according to cybersecurity company Lookout.

In a new report, Lookout’s researchers revealed that the number of mobile phishing attacks had skyrocketed by 37% between the last quarter of 2019 and the first three months of this year.

Both Androids and iPhones were targeted in these attacks and Lookout’s senior manager of security solutions Hank Schless told ZDNet that these attacks are harder to spot than ones launched against desktops, laptops and regular computers.

“Since we can’t preview links, see full URLs in mobile browsers, and quickly tap anything that comes our way, malicious actors are investing their time and energy into making these campaigns undetectable to the untrained eye,” he told the publication.

The news are in line with previous reports about growing cyber attacks. As RegTech Analyst has reported in the past, the coronavirus pandemic has raised the risk of being attacked by hackers, with many governmental bodies warning businesses and citizens to be aware of anything that looks a bit fishy.

Similarly, RegTech company Featurespace has noticed a rise in click & collect and credit card fraud. As the pandemic has forced more retailers to adopt click & collect services, fraudsters have moved to take advantage of inexperienced retailers using click & collect for the first time. The company has also noticed a 35% jump in credit card fraud in the US, warning that the UK is set to follow.

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