Thirty six per cent of respondents who participated in a dubizzle survey have never heard of the term 'phishing scam'. The remaining respondents (64 per cent) said they were familiar with the term, however a quarter of them (16.8 per cent) were unaware of its meaning.

There have been over 11,500 record breaches in the UAE over the past three years as per a recent report by Gemalto. The dubizzle survey highlighted that 45.9 per cent of those who have heard of phishing scams have been victims of one in the past.

"We have learnt that some dubizzle users have suspected a scam on our platform and 30.8 per cent of these did not take any action to report the scam," said Salma Anabtawi, customer support manager.

A phishing scam is a form of fraud in which the attacker attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and other personal or financial details and, indirectly, money, often for malicious reasons, by disguising as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

The main reasons leading to a suspected scam on dubizzle were that the offer found was too good to be true at 54.4 per cent, with the seller's information seeming suspicious claiming 27.8 per cent of the responses.

"It's easy to become a victim of a phishing scam as most scammers pose as genuine employees, buyers or sellers. Making contact information available helps connect with those listing a job or an ad faster, however this has its downside as it makes users more vulnerable to fraudulent activities," added Anabtawi.