Phishing ploys reflect savvy technical skills - The force of the phisher's arsenal gets stronger as IT implements more countermeasures.

When going up against hackers and organized crime intent on fraud through phishing, strategy is everything. Here are popular schemes listed (loosely) in order of severity.

Social engineering

Threat: Manipulates basic emotions: trust, fear, greed, kindness. Almost every phishing attack has a social-engineering component.

Recent ploys urge people to fill out a form to receive a job, prizes, or gift certificates. Just before Christmas, phishers sent e-mails warning that recent online orders might be delayed unless recipients clicked on the URL and provided log-in names as well as passwords.

Countermeasure: Ongoing user education

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