Beware of these 7 new hacker tricks — and how to protect yourself

Social engineering is when a malicious person exploits you through helpfulness, trust, fear, or respect in an attempt to manipulate you into doing something.

Examples of social engineering include: a work email purporting to come from your boss with a payment order for a large sum to a foreign account; a WhatsApp message from someone pretending to be your relative in need of money; or a phishing email asking you to click a link with scary consequences.

Hackers use phishing emails to try to persuade you to visit fake websites or websites infected with malware.

They usually ask you to enter your address and/or login details.

Phishing emails follow the same pattern: under a short introductory text is a button that takes you to the fake website.

Hackers are exploring other methods of luring victims to their victims.

Security provider Check Point also describes a quishing attack in which users were directed to a fake Microsoft login page. In this way, the attackers were able to bypass the usual security measures used to filter out phishing messages. How to protect yourself: Always pay attention to who sent you an email with a QR code and take a close look at the address displayed by the QR code reader. When in doubt, avoid scanning unsolicited QR codes. This article was translated from German to English and originally appeared on pcwelt.de..