FraudScope // Threat Library // Spear phishing
Phishing // Targeted
Spear phishing
Spear phishing is phishing aimed at a specific person, using real details like your name, employer, or a recent purchase to seem legitimate. That personalization is exactly what makes it dangerous. Here is how targeted attacks work.
What it is
Phishing that did its homework
Where ordinary phishing is mass-mailed, spear phishing is tailored to you. The attacker researches your name, role, employer, contacts, or recent activity, then crafts a message that fits your life convincingly.
In a workplace, this becomes business email compromise: a message that appears to come from your boss or a vendor, asking for an urgent payment or a change to banking details. The realism is the whole attack.
The playbook
How the attack works
Research the target
They gather your name, role, colleagues, and routines from public sources and breaches.
Impersonate someone you trust
A boss, vendor, or colleague, often with a near-identical email address.
Make a plausible request
An urgent invoice, a wire transfer, a gift-card errand, or a document to open.
Exploit the relationship
You comply because it looks like it came from someone real, with real context.
In their words
What it looks like
Red flags
Warning signs to watch for
- A message from a "known" person whose email address is subtly wrong.
- An urgent, unusual request to pay, wire funds, or buy gift cards.
- A request to change a vendor’s or employee’s banking details.
- Pressure to keep the request quiet or act outside normal process.
- Accurate personal or company details used to build false trust.
How FraudScope helps
Realistic does not mean real
Paste the message and FraudScope identifies the spear-phishing pattern, including impersonated authority and out-of-process urgency, and reminds you to verify through a known channel. Accurate details are a tactic, not proof.
Analysis runs entirely on your iPhone and makes no network requests. The only time FraudScope touches the internet is if you tap Inspect URL to check where a link really goes, and it tells you before it does.
Questions
Frequently asked
How is spear phishing different from regular phishing?
Regular phishing is sent in bulk to many people. Spear phishing is customized for one target, using real details to appear credible. That personalization makes it harder to spot and more likely to succeed.
A message from my boss looks completely real. How do I verify it?
Confirm through a separate, known channel, such as calling them directly or messaging on a platform you already use, before acting on an unusual or urgent financial request. Never rely on the email thread itself to verify the email.
Does FraudScope send my messages anywhere?
No. Analysis runs entirely on your iPhone with no network connection. The only time it contacts the internet is if you choose to inspect a link’s destination, and it tells you before it does.
Will FraudScope catch every scam?
No tool can. FraudScope is strongest with the full content of a message and weaker with a bare screenshot that has no link or sender. It is a powerful second opinion, not a guarantee. When in doubt, slow down and check with someone you trust.
Read the scam before it reads you
FraudScope explains what a suspicious message is really trying to do, entirely on your iPhone. Now available on the App Store.