In movies and TV shows, hackers hammer away at keyboards, unleashing Matrix-style code that cracks into any system in seconds. It looks impressive on screen, but reality tells a different story.
The most cost-effective — and therefore most common — way to steal access credentials today is phishing. Yes, growing up we also thought that hacking was all about lightning-fast coding. But in many real-life attacks, a simple email saying “Send me your password” can do the trick.
At MacPaw’s Moonlock cybersecurity division, we study phishing, malware, and hacking methods every day. So we decided to take a closer look at how movies portray phishing and how that compares to the real attacks we’ve seen firsthand on macOS.
Why macOS, you might ask? Not just because we like a challenge, but because cyber attacks on Mac computers have been on the rise recently, and more people need to know about them to be prepared.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in!
What movies get right about phishing attacks
While often oversimplified, hacking through phishing shows up in movies more than you'd expect. Hackers easily pose as someone else or invent convincing stories to trick their targets, always getting what they want on the first try. But let’s look at a few scenes that successfully capture some real-world phishing tactics on the big screen.
“The Beekeeper” (2024): Fake security alert
A phishing scam is at the heart of the conflict in “The Beekeeper”. It begins when the protagonist’s friend sees a pop-up on her laptop, warning her of a supposed computer infection. She calls the number listed for help, unknowingly connecting with scammers. They manipulate her to steal her sensitive information and use it to drain her bank accounts. Overwhelmed and devastated, she takes her own life, setting off the chain of events that drives the film.
This type of phishing attack is very common in real life. We don’t know how the woman got the message in the first place, but we know that phony security alerts may come from several different sources. They almost always come from malware that’s made its way onto the victim's machine. Perhaps they clicked a malware-infected link on a malicious website, installed cracked software with trojan malware hiding inside, or went on an interview with a hacker posing as a job recruiter.
Fake security alerts are counting on fear and surprise, so they urge victims to call a support number to fix the issue. Someone trained to sound helpful asks for their Social Security number, banking credentials, answers to security questions, and other sensitive information. Once scammers have it, they’ll use that data to drain the victim’s accounts and disappear.
“Hackers” (1995): Spear vishing
To change a TV channel lineup, Dade “Zero Cool” Murphy decides to take over the entire TV network. He calls the station at night, pretending to be an employee with an urgent request. Claiming he lost his work project due to a power surge at home, he plays on the colleague’s empathy and convinces them to read out a modem number from a workstation. Once he has it, Zero Cool connects to the system remotely, takes control over the station, and changes the programming.
The tactic Zero Cool used is called “spear vishing.” The term “spear vishing” comes from a combination of “spear phishing” and “voice.” It’s a highly targeted social engineering attack, which is extremely effective when properly executed.
Hackers use vishing to impersonate trusted entities like the IRS or a bank. The goal is always the same: to trick people into doing something that helps criminals steal data, access computer systems, or drain financial accounts.
When a hacker does prior research and knows precisely who they will be calling, vishing transforms into a more targeted attack, or “spear vishing.” Unlike broad phone call scams reaching out to thousands of people, spear vishing focuses on a single victim. It takes more time and effort to pull off, but for cybercriminals, the potential payoff makes it worth the investment.
“Taxi Driver” S1E9 (2021): Gaining the victim’s trust
In episode 9 of “Taxi Driver”, Choi Kyung-gu also fell victim to a vishing scam, although it was much more complex than in the previous examples.
Kyung-gu first got a call from someone claiming to be a bank employee. They warned him about suspicious activity on his account and advised him to transfer his money to a safe account to avoid losses. Shaken and worried, Kyung-gu was hesitant at first to follow the instructions, but then he got another call.
The second call was from someone posing as a police officer. They backed up the bank’s story, insisting Kyung-gu’s identity had been stolen and that moving his funds was the safest option.
The calls were fake, of course. And the so-called safe account belonged to the scammers. As Kyung-gu would later learn, he was just one of many victims caught in this carefully planned scam.
The “Taxi Driver” episode gives a pretty realistic look at how emotional manipulation and made-up stories lay the foundation for vishing scams. Unlike the quick-hit scam in “The Beekeeper,” this one played out in several stages. It mirrors how real-world vishing works: building trust, wearing the victim down, and making the scam feel all too believable.
“Blackhat” (2015): Phishing loaded with keylogger malware
Nicolas Hathaway, a convicted hacker, collaborates with the U.S.authorities to track a dangerous cybercriminal. At some point, Hathaway has to get valuable information out of NSA, The National Security Agency, but knows he won’t get it through official channels. He crafts a phishing email, impersonating an NSA agent and sending it to another employee.
To craft a convincing message, Hathaway used previous email conversations between the two. He mimicked the writing style and mentioned prior details, making his message feel authentic. The target doesn’t suspect a thing and downloads a PDF attachment, unaware that it’s laced with keylogger malware.
A keylogger is a type of malware that detects and records a victim's keyboard activity. When a keylogger infects a machine, it sends a record of all of the keys pressed back to a server owned by malicious actors. All the passwords, logins, and other sensitive data are now in their hands.
What Blackhat gets right is that phishing scams are often used as a malware delivery method. Even something as ordinary as opening a PDF attachment in a phishing email can trigger malicious activity and do immense harm.
Where moviemakers are wrong about phishing
The examples we’ve shared do a good job of highlighting some real aspects of phishing, but at the same time they weren’t exactly spot on. To set the record straight, here’s our top 9 misconceptions about hacking through phishing you’ll often see on the big screen.
- Hacking is often portrayed as a high-stakes, high-skill operation. Movies like “Hackers” or “Live Free or Die Hard” make it seem like cyberattacks are impossibly complex, something only genius-level coders can pull off. The danger here is that if you believe cyberattacks are too complex to understand or prevent, you might underestimate the power of healthy security habits and as a result fall victim to less flashy threats like phishing.
- Instantaneous results. In TV shows, it usually takes a few minutes and a few strings of code to successfully hack into a system. In real life, most successful cyberattacks are slow and methodical. Hackers spend days, weeks, or even months doing reconnaissance, identifying vulnerabilities, testing phishing lures, and waiting for just the right opportunity.
- The flickering screen effect. Hacking is often portrayed as a bunch of windows popping up and disappearing on the victim’s monitor. This exaggerated image warps how people understand cyber threats and makes them underestimate the “boring” reality of phishing attacks — those that quietly deliver malware, stealing your data without a single flicker.
- Universal success. It’s almost impossible for hackers to fail, and their success seems guaranteed. In real life, many of these attempts could have failed. The NSA agent from Blackhat could have detected the keylogger with corporate anti-malware software. The security employee from “Hackers” could’ve remembered their cybersecurity awareness training and refused to read out the modem number to a stranger on the phone. Phishing works, but its consequences can be blocked as well.
- Hacking needs elite cyber skills. With the rise of malware-as-a-service, this misconception has long lost its credibility. Cyberattacks have become plug-and-play commodities on the black markets of the dark net, and even the most inexperienced person can make a hacking attempt.
- Too-obvious phishing portrayals. It’s easy for hackers to come up with a convincing lie, and targets fall for it without much resistance. Because of these popular culture portrayals, viewers may think that real phishing attempts are easy to spot. Many of us expect blatant grammar mistakes or bold red warnings when in fact, we should be looking for more subtle signs. Today’s phishing methods are far more sophisticated, and we’ll take a closer look at them in our macOS attack examples.
- One-on-one phishing. In films, phishing attacks are often presented as targeted incidents carried out by lone hackers with a personal motive. In reality, phishing is a mass operation and rarely personal. Threat actors send out hundreds of thousands of emails and spam calls, aiming to hit as many people as possible and counting on a few to fall for it. Understanding this scale is important because it helps us feel less helpless in the face of the threat and empowers us to be more proactive in our defenses.
- Unclear targeting triggers. Films rarely explain why someone becomes the target of a phishing attack or how that attack actually helps the criminals succeed. What’s also missing is a clear picture of where the attack started and why it worked. Showing a variety of attack sources would help shift pop culture away from the mystification of hacking and toward a more realistic portrayal of how these threats actually unfold.
- Lack of recovery attempts. In movies, phishing victims rarely fight back. No one freezes their accounts, contacts their bank, or uses cybersecurity tools. As if once the hacker strikes, the damage is done and there’s nothing left to do. This adds to the mystique around hacking: it’s so high-tech and unstoppable, recovery isn’t even worth trying. But in real life, recovery steps matter. They can limit the damage, protect what’s left, and sometimes even stop the attack mid-way. Don’t fall for the learned helplessness that movies often portray. There’s always something you can do.
Real-life phishing attacks we saw on macOS
Although we don’t see hacked Macs in the movies, phishing attacks are no stranger to Mac computers. They are subtle, sophisticated, and growing in numbers each day. Here are some important facts that everyone should know, regardless if you’re a Mac owner or not.
- Mac has become the computer for corporate environments, especially in tech, finance, and crypto industry. Most often, decision-makers and people with high-value assets are the primary targets.
- AI has brought phishing to the next level. It helps cybercriminals craft convincing emails and fake website clones to Apple, macOS apps, or macOS system messages.
- AI has also helped elevate malware creation to an industrial scale, giving rise to a new distribution model known as malware-as-a-service (MaaS). Anybody can purchase malware on the dark net for as little as $1000 and use it as a fake clone of a popular app, stealing credentials and other sensitive data.
- According to Egress research, nearly half of phishing emails come from accounts that have already been hacked. These are legitimate email accounts — the ones that your colleagues or extended family have — that cybercriminals have taken over. Such emails are seen as trusted sources, so they pass authentication checks and end up in your inbox.
- Attackers often send phishing messages posing as Apple Support or recruiters from top-tier companies. Their goal is to make victims click malicious links or enter their credentials under false pretexts.
Fake CleanMyMac phishing campaign
Recently, MacPaw’s Moonlock Lab cleanmymacpro[.]net/dl.php, redirecting the victim to another malicious URL sartaaz[.]com/api.php?call=cleaner, ready to infect the victim with the Atomic Stealer malware.
Additionally, the attacker provides deceptive installation steps throughmanual.php, which is in fact a method describing how to bypass macOS Gatekeeper security measures. This tactic is a common phishing strategy to trick users into executing malware through step-by-step instructions disguised as legitimate setup guidelines.
The final malware payload URL is dynamically generated and appears only once, making the campaign harder to analyze and evade automated security detections.
Phishing of Ledger seed phrases
Ledger Live is a widely used app for managing crypto assets through Ledger cold wallets. Cybercriminals have been distributing fake clones of Ledger Live for months now, but recently we’ve found out that phishing has become an important part of the attack.
The victim gets infected with malware through downloads from the internet. Once on a Mac, malware goes after passwords, notes, and wallet details, also replacing the real Ledger Live app with a fake clone.
The fake app then shows a fake alert about suspicious activity in the wallet and asks to enter their seed phrase. The seed phrase is then sent to an attacker-controlled server, exposing the user’s assets in seconds.
Like in the example with a phishing CleanMyMac website, this campaign also provides victims with a fake setup guide that is designed to bypass macOS Gatekeeper protections.
Scareware campaign targets Safari users
A recent campaign
Stage 1: Victims landed on typosquatted URLs and saw a fake warning “Your Mac is locked.”
Stage 2: They were prompted to enter their Apple Account credentials to unlock the system they thought was frozen. It all followed the standard scenario of a scareware attack.
Malicious websites were hosted on reputable windows.net domains, designs and messages were tailored for Mac users. If any subdomain was exposed by security experts, criminals could quickly take them down and create new ones, maintaining consistent rotation for persistence.
Final thoughts
Like it or not, TV shows and movies are forming our perception of reality. Representation matters, and it concerns the portrayal of cybersecurity, too. If the big screen shows us hacking as mystified, even glorified, field, this image slowly seeps into everyday life. And when real attackers strike, the last thing we want is to freeze because we've been conditioned to see hacking as something untouchable.
Most people believe that they are not interesting enough to become targets for cybercriminals. Once again, that belief comes from the idea that hacking attacks are personal and highly motivated. But phishing doesn’t have to know each of us by name to work. It’s being sent out to thousands of people, and anybody might be its victim.
Mac users being in the spotlight of phishing campaigns are a clear example of how hacking adapts to market changes and changes in our lifestyles. Fifteen years ago, only a few owned cryptocurrency and used Mac computers every day. Apple boasted that Macs are safe from viruses, and that was somewhat true. Now, we can’t be farther from that reality.
Technology is evolving, and chances are we won’t see the Matrix-style hackers in real life. With the rise of AI, hacking can soon become a no-code activity like so many industries are trying to become. The deception techniques, however, will stick around. Albeit in slightly different forms. After all, con artists and their ways have been around for as long as there’s humanity. So learning about social engineering and all of its -ishing forms might be useful. Sometimes even life-saving.
The images in this article are used solely for educational and analytical purposes. All rights to the visual content belong to their respective copyright holders.