In the past two days I received three phishing mails from people I like and respect. One is a PR person, the other a venture capitalist and today I received a classic ‘Check the attached Google Doc’ phishing mail from a designer.
These are all internet professionals. Not a retired uncle who’s just discovering the Interwebs.
So my question is: Are these people just stupid? Or are phishing mails getting better?
And at what point can I get angry?
Who’s to blame? Can we chastise our friends for being stupid for still falling for these scams in 2016? Can we tell our friends to get a virus scanner? Or take a course? After all, it is not just themselves that are inconvenienced – their naiveté or ignorance causes the virus, scam or phishing attack to spread.
Of course the scammer is to blame for even trying to scam you, but you also have a responsibility to pay attention and not fall for stupid scams, right?
For now I’ll stick to politely giving these people a call or sending them a text. But there’s gotta be a moment where we will collectively go: Dude, stop it already.
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