PayPal becomes the popular online phisher target

Recently, statistics compiled by email security vendor Vade Secure indicate that PayPal has replaced Microsoft as the most abused brand by phishers. In the report, Vade Secure shows that “After five quarters, PayPal has become the first brand other than Microsoft to claim the number one spot in the rankings. In Q3 2019, Vade’s AI engine detected 16,547 unique PayPal phishing URLs for an average of nearly 180 per day. This represents a 69.6 percent YoY increase. Impersonating PayPal, which had more than 286 million active user accounts in Q2, is clearly a highly profitable practice for cybercriminals, with no letup in sight.”

Criminals have also used Office 365 files and SharePoint documents, generated legitimate notifications from Microsoft’s online productivity suite, and then provided victims with links to phishing pages.

From the quarterly statistics released by Vade Secure, Microsoft has consistently ranked first, but in the last three quarters of 2019, the frequency of using paypal has risen sharply. At present, phishing and other cyber attacks are still a growing problem. According to the FBI, the total cost of all victims last year was about $1.2 billion.