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Don't Open an Email If You See These Warning Signs — Because It Could Drain Your Bank Account, New Research Reveals That careless click could cost you a lot of money.

By Amanda Breen Edited by Jessica Thomas

Key Takeaways

  • Almost half of respondents to a new global survey say they've fallen victim to a cyberattack or scam.
  • Getting familiar with common "dangerous" words can help you protect personal information from bad actors.

Nearly half of respondents to a new global survey say they've fallen victim to a cyberattack or scam, according to a report commissioned by cybersecurity company Yubico, per Talker.

Phishing, where a cybercriminal sends a deceptive message to trick someone into divulging sensitive information, such as bank account details or allowing access to their technology, is on the rise — up over 60% from 2021 to 2022, CNBC reported.

Chances are, you've seen a phishing email in your inbox. But recognizing when it was sent by a bad actor can stop you from being their next victim.

Related: AI Cloning Hoax Can Copy Your Voice in 3 Seconds—and It's Emptying Bank Accounts. Here's How to Protect Yourself.

A recent study from email validation and deliverability platform ZeroBounce analyzed email datasets for spam detection to determine the most dangerous and recurring words in scam emails.

The research calculated weighted scores based on the appearance frequency of the word, click-through rate (CTR) and infection/damage rate.

Perhaps not surprisingly, "money" comes in first among the most dangerous words, with an 83.56% infection/damage rate and the second-highest appearance and CTR.

Related: Why AI is Your New Best Friend... and Worst Enemy in the Battle Against Phishing Scams

"Income" has the highest CTR at 4.68% despite a moderate appearance frequency (267).

"Investment," "credit," "billion" and "free" rounded out the top five most dangerous words, with the latter surfacing most frequently (2,266 times) and receiving the lowest CTR (.56%).

Check out ZeroBounce's full list of findings below:

Word

Appearance Frequency

CTR

Infection Rate (%)

Weighted Score

money

1143

4.56%

83.56

81.68

investment

226

4.59%

89.64

72.43

credit

726

4.22%

50.52

59.23

billion

107

3.97%

71.93

58.97

free

2266

0.56%

54.78

58

loan

176

4.31%

61.11

57.23

debt

194

3.73%

60.61

53.52

cash

321

3.93%

52.66

52.96

cost

359

4.21%

43.33

51.07

income

267

4.68%

32.26

47.93

Amanda Breen

Entrepreneur Staff

Senior Features Writer

Amanda Breen is a senior features writer at Entrepreneur.com. She is a graduate of Barnard College and received an MFA in writing at Columbia University, where she was a news fellow for the School of the Arts.

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