| Mobile Invitation Phishing Surges 1189% in Q2… Attacks Targeting Wedding Season
In the second quarter of this year, phishing messages disguised as mobile wedding invitations surged by 1189% compared to the previous quarter.
According to AhnLab's 'Q2 2025 Phishing Message Trend Report' released on the 31st of last month, 28.10% of all phishing messages during this period were attacks disguised as wedding invitations. This is analyzed as an attempt to take advantage of lowered user vigilance during the spring wedding season.
Phishing disguised as wedding invitations entices users to click on links by posing as wedding invitation messages, subsequently leading users to install malicious apps or access phishing sites to steal sensitive personal information such as contacts.
Such attacks are typical cases of exploiting everyday situations to capitalize on users' psychological vulnerabilities.
Diverse Disguises and Delivery Methods of Phishing Messages
In addition to wedding invitation phishing, various types of phishing messages have been identified.
Job advertisements disguised as phishing ranked second at 18.69%, followed by impersonation of financial institutions (15.03%), loan product advisories disguised as phishing (14.66%), impersonation of Telegram (10.71%), impersonation of government agencies (4.85%), and impersonation of delivery services (2.03%).
Regarding the delivery methods of phishing messages, URL insertion accounted for the highest proportion at 67.37%. This was followed by user enticement via mobile messengers (13.10%) and phone inducement (12.65%).
Notably, there is a consistent trend of first contacting users via text messages and then directing them to more personal channels such as one-on-one chat rooms or open chats and phone calls to build trust and attempt further phishing.
Examining the industries targeted by phishing, finance (15.16%), government and public institutions (4.86%), and logistics (2.03%) were the primary targets. However, in this quarter, phishing in the 'Other' category accounted for 77.95% of the total, rather than specific industries.
This indicates that phishing attacks are spreading beyond specific sectors to encompass all aspects of daily life.
An AhnLab representative stated, "Phishing text attacks exploit psychological vulnerabilities by using themes closely related to users' daily lives, such as seasonal issues or social concerns," and emphasized, "By simply following basic security rules, such as not clicking on suspicious URLs, victims can greatly reduce their risk."
Image Source: AhnLab, material photos for better understanding of the article / bing image creator
