Personality caught in the social net: Facebook phishing

Phishing is a well-documented social phenomenon whereby an individual or group poses as a trustworthy source to lure an unsuspecting user to give up sensitive, personal details willingly; this data is deceitfully utilised in identity theft, cash transfer and fraudulent credit card transactions. This study focuses on the correlation of phishing and Facebook users’ personality traits. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires measuring conscientiousness, impulsivity and trust in online firms; additionally they were asked to rate the legitimacy of Facebook email and web login page stimuli where some samples were genuine and others were phish. The findings indicate that: individuals who score highly in cognitive instability, a subscale of impulsivity, log in more frequently and identify fewer phishing stimuli than those who score low in cognitive instability; not all users identify all trust factors (present or missing) in Facebook emails and websites; and individuals mistake authentic Facebook emails and web pages as phish.