In this attack, a victim receives an e-mail claiming from PayPal stating that their account has been disabled and confirmation is required before activation. The attackers then scam to collect not one

Not replying to emails or popups requesting personal or financial information is a valid and widely recommended anti-phishing best practice.

Distrusting phone numbers embedded in suspicious emails is a valid defense because attackers include fake support numbers to further social engineer victims into disclosing information.

Regularly reviewing bank and credit card statements is a valid control that helps detect unauthorized transactions resulting from stolen credentials.

Phishing attacks are social engineering attacks that exploit human psychology through convincing fraudulent emails and spoofed websites, not malicious executable code that security software is designed to detect. Antivirus, anti-spyware, and firewall tools cannot reliably identify legitimate-looking phishing emails or credential-harvesting pages because no malware payload is delivered. These tools provide minimal protection against phishing since the attack vector is deception, not technical exploitation.

Avoiding transmitting credit card numbers and personal data via email is a valid practice since standard email is an unencrypted, insecure channel.