The Simple but Destructive Act of Phishing and Catfishing

This week’s class really opened my eyes to the horrible deceptive acts that phishing and catfishing can bring. I always pictured phishing as some super technical complex coding content, but our discussion kind of shattered that. My group and I walked through how easy it would be to pull off a fake “RSVP to the work luncheon” email, send it company-wide, make the link look official, and then click. The part that bothered me most is how normal it all feels. We’re trained to be responsive at work and helpful to our teams, so an RSVP link doesn’t set off alarms. Realizing that something so simple could open the door to someone accessing a computer and everything on it was honestly unsettling.


The videos we watched in class added a sorrowful feeling to the environment. Watching people lose their savings, privacy, or even their sense of safety because they trusted the wrong message; it was heartbreaking. None of them looked “reckless.” They were tired, busy, trying to do the right thing, or just caught at a vulnerable moment. That hit me: this isn’t about being dumb; it’s about being human. Scammers know that, and they use it.

I left class feeling two things at once: sad and sharper. Sad because the world really does have people who will weaponize trust. Sharper because I don’t want to be ignorant about this anymore. Practical changes I’m going to make: hovering over links before I click, double-checking the sender’s address, not entering credentials from an email link, and when in doubt, going straight to the official site or asking someone in IT. It sounds basic, but that’s the goal of scammers. Basic habits can block simple scams.

 

Comments

  1. williams.dan76September 9, 2025 at 11:50 AM

    Thanks, Sara, I appreciate your candid comments. I too feel sad when viewing the videos and realizing how so many people have been swindled, and I wish I felt sharper or more aware. But the predatory scam artists constantly evolve their techniques, and when we think we are aware we become more susceptible to the new strategies. I think you and your group were right--it is easy to come up with a convincing phishing scam. The only way to win is not to play the game.

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