Phishing

Phishing is somebody pretending to be a name you trust, in order to get you to hand something over. Your bank, your boss, a delivery company.

What makes it work is scale, not cleverness. Sending a million messages costs almost nothing, and the sender only needs one person in a bad moment. That is why the messages so often push you to hurry: a parcel that will be returned, an account that will be closed, a payment that must go today. Urgency is the tell. Almost nothing genuine needs you to act in the next five minutes, and a real organisation will not mind you hanging up and calling back on a number you found yourself.