Copyright © 2009 What The Hell? Security
Phishing used to be a bounded phenomenon. Mirriam-Webster Online defines it as “a scam by which an e-mail user is duped into revealing personal or confidential information which the scammer can use illicitly.“
Translation: Receive an email thick with Romanian accent; click on “Click hear” [sic]; transcribe your PayPal credentials from the yellow post-it stuck to your monitor; press “Submit for Abuse.” Ahhh, the good old days.
It’s not been that simple for quite a while. Nowadays phishing and drive-by malware share the same “bad guy” ecosystem. You can’t tease them apart, let alone distinguish between cause and effect.
We need new a replacement term that is jargon-free, self-descriptive and bounded. Here it is:
Post-Click Fraud – The monetary theft, or loss of privacy, brought about as the direct result of clicking on a deceptive link or submitting a deceptive form.
Alternatively, I’m good with No Click, No Trick.
