Look, the wider majority of us are pretty aware that the Nigerian prince is a lie. He doesn’t have vast riches and if he did, he sure as hell wouldn’t give them to you.
But much to our horror, research done by the Friedrich-Alexander University in Germany found around half of the population will happily click on a bung link, as long as they are addressed by their name in the message.
The researchers sent out 1,700 emails posing as a dicey phishing scam to see how many would fall for it.
The first study involved sending out messages via email and Facebook that contained a link claiming to have pictures from a New Year’s Eve party from a week earlier. If opened in email, they would be redirected to an ‘access denied’ page and in Facebook, a fake profile that contained some images with little information. The first bunch addressed participants by their first names and the second didn’t address them at all.
Of those addressed by name in email, 56 percent of them clicked the link because internet security means nothing to them. In the Facebook message, 38 percent clicked the bogus link. Those who were not addressed by name wanted much less of that shit, with only 20 percent of email respondents deciding to take the bait. However, 40 percent of no-name Facebook users clicked the link.
Once each study was completed, the researchers interviewed all recipients. 78 percent of them said they were conscious of email phishing scams and a heap said they were unaware that they had even clicked the dodgy link.
Pro tip – Don’t be clickin’ anything from someone you don’t know. If it looks suss af, it probably is.
Be safe out there, friends.
Source: Gizmodo.
Photo: The Simpsons.
