Abstract
This paper is the second part of an entire study conducted regarding general awareness of email scams. The goal of this particular part of research was to check the awareness level and knowledge gap among email users with respect to the actions that need to be taken in case of scam email victimization, and awareness regarding common practices that are used in identifying scam email and types of online scam media. Most common actions mentioned by respondents in case of financial scams and clicking on a malicious link were to contact their banks to close their accounts and cancel their credit cards (41.17 %) and running an anti-virus scan (20.83 %) respectively. The most frequently mentioned online scam media other than email was online ads with pop-ups, while the most common practice employed to identify email scam was to check for emails asking for or giving away money. A definite lack of awareness was found among the users with respect to the actions that need to be taken in case of financial scam victimization. In conclusion, the researchers suggest a need for formal education regarding email scam awareness and best email usage practices.
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Notes
- 1.
Bracketed numbers indicate frequency.
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Cole, K.A., Datar, T.D., Rogers, M.K. (2015). Awareness of Scam E-Mails: An Exploratory Research Study – Part 2. In: James, J., Breitinger, F. (eds) Digital Forensics and Cyber Crime. ICDF2C 2015. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 157. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25512-5_9
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