Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails

Vitali Herrera-Semenets; Lázaro Bustio-Martínez; Yamel  Pérez-Guadarramas; Jorge Ángel González-Ordiano; Jan van den Berg

doi:10.1007/978-3-031-76604-6_1

Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails

Vitali Herrera-Semenets, Lázaro Bustio-Martínez^*, Yamel Pérez-Guadarramas, Jorge Ángel González-Ordiano, Jan van den Berg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Cyber Security

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

Phishing, a pervasive cybersecurity issue, involves fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information and to provoke unintentional money transfers or malware downloads, among others, by disguising as trustworthy entities in electronic communications. This paper presents an innovative approach to phishing detection in Spanish emails using patterns represented as rules. Through a comprehensive, still efficient analysis of emails, we identify interpretable recurring patterns and relevant phrases used in phishing attempts. These phrases and words often aim to persuade victims into revealing personal or financial information. These patterns are translated into a set of rules that are applied to evaluate incoming emails. Additionally, a proof-of-concept is carried out using a phishing data set of Spanish emails created for this study. Our method achieved promising results in identifying phishing attempts, providing an additional layer of security for email users. Moreover, this approach can be adapted to detect phishing in other languages, making it a potentially global solution to this persistent cybersecurity issue.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications
Subtitle of host publication	27th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2024
Editors	R. Hernández-García, R.J. Barrientos, R.J. Velastin
Place of Publication	Cham
Publisher	Springer
Pages	1-15
Number of pages	15
Edition	Part II
ISBN (Electronic)	978-3-031-76604-6
ISBN (Print)	978-3-031-76603-9
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76604-6_1
Publication status	Published - 2025
Event	CIARP 2024: 27th Iberoamerican Congress - Talca, Chile Duration: 26 Nov 2024 → 29 Nov 2024 Conference number: 27th

Publication series

Name	Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Publisher	Springer
Volume	15369 LNCS
ISSN (Print)	0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)	1611-3349

Conference

Conference	CIARP 2024
Country/Territory	Chile
City	Talca
Period	26/11/24 → 29/11/24

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care
Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

Keywords

Machine learning
Phishing detection
Rule-based systems
Spanish emails

Access to Document

10.1007/978-3-031-76604-6_1

Cite this

Herrera-Semenets, V., Bustio-Martínez, L., Pérez-Guadarramas, Y., González-Ordiano, J. Á., & van den Berg, J. (2025). Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails. In R. Hernández-García, R. J. Barrientos, & R. J. Velastin (Eds.), Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications: 27th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2024 (Part II ed., pp. 1-15). (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 15369 LNCS). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76604-6_1

Herrera-Semenets, Vitali ; Bustio-Martínez, Lázaro ; Pérez-Guadarramas, Yamel et al. / Unmasking Phishing Attempts : A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails. Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications: 27th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2024. editor / R. Hernández-García ; R.J. Barrientos ; R.J. Velastin. Part II. ed. Cham : Springer, 2025. pp. 1-15 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)).

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title = "Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails",

abstract = "Phishing, a pervasive cybersecurity issue, involves fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information and to provoke unintentional money transfers or malware downloads, among others, by disguising as trustworthy entities in electronic communications. This paper presents an innovative approach to phishing detection in Spanish emails using patterns represented as rules. Through a comprehensive, still efficient analysis of emails, we identify interpretable recurring patterns and relevant phrases used in phishing attempts. These phrases and words often aim to persuade victims into revealing personal or financial information. These patterns are translated into a set of rules that are applied to evaluate incoming emails. Additionally, a proof-of-concept is carried out using a phishing data set of Spanish emails created for this study. Our method achieved promising results in identifying phishing attempts, providing an additional layer of security for email users. Moreover, this approach can be adapted to detect phishing in other languages, making it a potentially global solution to this persistent cybersecurity issue.",

keywords = "Machine learning, Phishing detection, Rule-based systems, Spanish emails",

author = "Vitali Herrera-Semenets and L{\'a}zaro Bustio-Mart{\'i}nez and Yamel P{\'e}rez-Guadarramas and Gonz{\'a}lez-Ordiano, {Jorge {\'A}ngel} and {van den Berg}, Jan",

note = "Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.; CIARP 2024 : 27th Iberoamerican Congress ; Conference date: 26-11-2024 Through 29-11-2024",

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Herrera-Semenets, V, Bustio-Martínez, L, Pérez-Guadarramas, Y, González-Ordiano, JÁ & van den Berg, J 2025, Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails. in R Hernández-García, RJ Barrientos & RJ Velastin (eds), Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications: 27th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2024. Part II edn, Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), vol. 15369 LNCS, Springer, Cham, pp. 1-15, CIARP 2024, Talca, Chile, 26/11/24. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-76604-6_1

Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails. / Herrera-Semenets, Vitali; Bustio-Martínez, Lázaro; Pérez-Guadarramas, Yamel et al.
Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications: 27th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2024. ed. / R. Hernández-García; R.J. Barrientos; R.J. Velastin. Part II. ed. Cham: Springer, 2025. p. 1-15 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics); Vol. 15369 LNCS).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volume › Conference contribution › Scientific › peer-review

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AU - van den Berg, Jan

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AB - Phishing, a pervasive cybersecurity issue, involves fraudulent attempts to obtain sensitive information and to provoke unintentional money transfers or malware downloads, among others, by disguising as trustworthy entities in electronic communications. This paper presents an innovative approach to phishing detection in Spanish emails using patterns represented as rules. Through a comprehensive, still efficient analysis of emails, we identify interpretable recurring patterns and relevant phrases used in phishing attempts. These phrases and words often aim to persuade victims into revealing personal or financial information. These patterns are translated into a set of rules that are applied to evaluate incoming emails. Additionally, a proof-of-concept is carried out using a phishing data set of Spanish emails created for this study. Our method achieved promising results in identifying phishing attempts, providing an additional layer of security for email users. Moreover, this approach can be adapted to detect phishing in other languages, making it a potentially global solution to this persistent cybersecurity issue.

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KW - Rule-based systems

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T3 - Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

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Herrera-Semenets V, Bustio-Martínez L, Pérez-Guadarramas Y, González-Ordiano JÁ, van den Berg J. Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails. In Hernández-García R, Barrientos RJ, Velastin RJ, editors, Progress in Pattern Recognition, Image Analysis, Computer Vision, and Applications: 27th Iberoamerican Congress, CIARP 2024. Part II ed. Cham: Springer. 2025. p. 1-15. (Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)). doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-76604-6_1

Unmasking Phishing Attempts: A Study on Detection in Spanish Emails

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