Grammatical Deviations in Philippine Phishing Emails

Abstract

Just as language is proven to be useful in making day-to-day life convenient, some situations have also demonstrated the possibility of language being used to deceive people. One instance is the proliferating use of phishing emails. Given this occurrence, a riveting endeavor in the concept of actual language utilization is the study of grammatical deviations in phishing emails. Employing error analysis, this study sought to determine how a grammar study can be helpful in the examination of the imposters’ language, specifically in the case of phishing emails. The purpose of this research was to document the dominant errors that appeared in Philippine phishing emails and to explain how grammatical deviations can give away deception. The result of this research showed that of the fifteen collected phishing emails, all or 100% contained usage errors. This means that of the fifteen phishing emails in this study, each one has errors. The most frequent of these errors are errors in capitalization, punctuation, and word forms. This result implies that although imposters pretend to be legitimate, they cannot imitate and copy the language of authentic emails. This may be because when legitimate institutions and organizations like banks, schools, or establishments release official emails, they do so after thorough proofreading and editing. Phishers, however, may not have the same mechanisms to ensure grammar correctness and accuracy. Based on these findings, the researcher infers that with good grammar skills, one can have a larger inclination to distinguish phishing from genuine emails. Contrariwise, those who do not have profound knowledge of grammar conventions may have a larger possibility of falling into the phishing trap.