From promising “easy and stable” investment plans to “free” online streaming of big-ticket movies even before they released, cyber-fraudsters upped their game considerably in 2021. As per a report by cybersecurity services and solutions company Kaspersky, more than 45 percent of all emails sent globally in 2021 were spam, while Brazil, France and Portugal had the highest shares of users falling for phishing scams, at 12.39 percent, 12.21 percent and 11.4 percent, respectively. The report said 7.29 percent of global users attacked were from India.
| Country | Share of attacked users |
| Brazil | 12.39% |
| France | 12.21% |
| Portugal | 11.40% |
| Mongolia | 10.98% |
| Réunion | 10.97% |
| Brunei | 10.89% |
| Madagascar | 10.87% |
| Andorra | 10.79% |
| Australia | 10.74% |
| Ecuador | 10.73% |
Spam are massive or targeted email distributions, promoting products and services to lure the unsuspecting. Phishing often takes the form of a spam email paired with a malicious copy of a legitimate website.
“While not being too complex technology-wise, spam and phishing attacks are often based on sophisticated social engineering techniques. That is why such attacks are considered quite dangerous for an unprepared user,” Kaspersky said in its ‘Spam and Phishing in 2021’ report.
The most innovative method that scammers came up with last year was offering free online streaming of highly anticipated movies, including the James Bond movie ‘No Time To Die’ and Marvel’s latest superhero movie ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’.
