Security News > 2022 > July > LinkedIn remains the most impersonated brand in phishing attacks
LinkedIn is holding the top spot for the most impersonated brand in phishing campaigns observed during the second quarter of 2022.
Compared to the first quarter of the year, LinkedIn impersonation dropped from 52% to 45%. However, it maintains a considerable distance from the second most imitated brand by fraudsters, Microsoft, currently at 13%. The central theme in spoofed Microsoft emails is requests to verify Outlook accounts to steal usernames and passwords.
As Check Point explains in its report, phishing campaigns using fake LinkedIn emails try to mimic common messages from the platform to its users, such as "You appeared in 8 searchers this week", or "You have one new message."
Some lures used in these campaigns include fake promotions for the LinkedIn Pro service, bogus policy updates, or even threats of account termination for "Unverified customers."
They all lead to a phishing web page where the victims are asked to enter their LinkedIn credentials, enabling the threat actors to take over the accounts.
With access to a LinkedIn account, a threat actor could deploy targeted phishing campaigns to reach the victim's coworkers or valuable individuals in their connections network.
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