Identifying phishing as a form of cybercrime in Nigeria

Abstract

Phishing is one of the oldest and most flexible types of social engineering attacks and could be used in many ways, and for different purposes, to lure unwary users to sites and trick them into entering personal information. This paper is written with the purpose of educating the public about phishing as a form of cybercrime. It adopts the use of doctrinal research methodology in analyzing phishing as a form of cybercrime, discussing its historical development, techniques and its criminalization under the Cybercrime Act in Nigeria. The paper further highlights the various ways of identifying messages that are phishing in nature. Aside from the general conclusion, the paper enumerates some of the things which a person can do when confronted with an attempted phishing scam. The paper recommends that the general public should be more suspicious of all electronic communications and websites especially those communications which were not initiated by them.