Posted on Tuesday March 08, 2016
For the second week of Fraud Prevention Month, we’re going to talk about phishing. Not to be confused with fishing however, there are parallels. Criminals throw out cyberbait and hope you bite.
Phishing scams are geared towards getting you to divulge personal and banking information, usually through an email. A lot of work goes into the emails to make them seem like the come from legitimate organizations, but real companies will never ask you to share this information via email.
Often, scammers are asking you to “authenticate”, “validate” or “confirm” information in their quest to get your money. Always proceed with caution if you receive one of these emails. These suspicious messages also include links that carry viruses that can infect your computer. Your best bet is to delete the email and if you think the request could be legitimate, call the company to verify the request.
Before responding to any email, remember to THINK –
Talk to the company requesting the information
Hesitate and consider if it is a real request
Ignore requests to input personal data
Never click on the links included
Keep a record of your accounts and online activity
Next week, we’ll discuss Romance Scams and what you can do to protect yourself when entering the online dating world.
