An article over at computerworld.com discusses the impact spear phishing is having on scam victims.

Previously, scammers would target people en masse by spamming thousands, if not millions of mailboxes with emails in the hope that a few would view the email, and fall for the scam.

Spear phishing is more targetted. Small numbers of already identified people, who may work together or belong to the same organisation as each other are sent an email which appears official, and perhaps asks them to upgrade some software on their computer. Unfortunately this is completely misleading and the intention is to have the victim install malicious software on their computer.

Dave Jevans,  founder and chairman of IronKey shared some of his thoughts on spear fishing.

“Today’s spear phishing is not only more prevalent but also much more technically proficient,”

“They’re not going for a password, anymore, they’re getting people to install crimeware on their computers,”

It’s best to be wary of anything like this that is delivered by email. If in doubt, always verify the source by speaking directly to the company the scammers are trying to imitate.