An urgent warning tries to frighten people into reacting without considering the consequences. The most efficient phishing email subject lines use psychological cues to get recipients to click, and people generally don’t like missing out on important and attention-catching messages. Attackers frequently feed on fear and urgency.
That is why so many scams demand that recipients respond quickly to avoid being too late to recover from. Once the bait has been laid and the victim falls for the scam immediately, whatever link or attachment has been accessed could have already infected the device.
Tips: Avoid bland or generic welcomes and salutations, such as “Dear Customer” or “Hello your.email@company.com.” Legitimate companies will utilize the given name or surname of the recipient.