Factors Affecting Internet Users’ Effectiveness to Detect Phishing

Abstract

Phishers target Internet users and send them phishing emails or create phishing websites to deceive victims and extract financial gains. This study investigated the factors that affect Internet users in phishing detection. The responses of 252 participants to an online survey were collected and analysed. Participants were mostly careful when a website requested urgent action, its content had errors, or an email message asked recipients to give personal information or click a suspicious link. They believed that education about phishing, email filtering software, and connecting directly to the official website, and not through a link, were the best practices. They also stated that they could learn how to easily detect phishing attempts and evaluate whether an email was spam, advertising, phishing, or a scam. It was also found that the creation of blacklists and whitelists did not provide sufficient protection against phishing, active warnings were more effective than passive warnings, and users were receiving phishing emails that escaped email filtering and antivirus software. Further statistical analysis of their responses revealed that there was a moderate positive correlation between each of the variables Self-Efficacy in Phishing Detection, Information Evaluation Skills, E-Banking Phishing Detection Skills with Phishing Detection Effectiveness. Finally, it was found that the Facilitating Conditions for Phishing Detection, E-Banking Phishing Detection Skills, and E-Mail Phishing Detection Skills influenced Phishing Detection Effectiveness.