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arXiv · 2604.04926

Comprehensive List of User Deception Techniques in Emails

Maxime Veit·Mattia Mossano·Tobias Länge·Melanie Volkamer
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Abstract

Email remains a central communication medium, yet its long-standing design and interface conventions continue to enable deceptive attacks. This research note presents a structured list of 42 email-based deception techniques, documented with 64 concrete example implementations, organized around the sender, link, and attachment security indicators as well as techniques targeting the email rendering environment. Building on a prior systematic literature review, we consolidate previously reported techniques with newly developed example implementations and introduce novel deception techniques identified through our own examination. Rather than assessing effectiveness or real-world severity, each entry explains the underlying mechanism in isolation, separating the high-level deception goal from its concrete technical implementation. The documented techniques serve as modular building blocks and a structured reference for future work on countermeasures across infrastructure, email client design, and security awareness, supporting researchers as well as developers, operators, and designers working in these areas.

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Maxime Veit, Mattia Mossano, Tobias Länge, Melanie Volkamer. 2026-04-06. Comprehensive List of User Deception Techniques in Emails. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.04926

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