What Is Phishing And How To Avoid The Bait
04/19/2024
Phishing can come in the form of emails, text, online popups, or phone calls. It is a type of fraud that occurs when someone tries to contact you under false pretenses with the goal to obtain your personal or banking information.
In many cases fraudsters pretend to be from a legitimate retailer, financial institution, organization, or government agency. In other cases, they may pose as a familiar individual such as a boss or someone you know.
To steal your personal information, they may ask you to confirm, update or validate your personal information, especially when posing as a business or organization. The message usually contains a consequence if you do not follow the instructions (i.e. your account will be frozen, your account will close), or it may state that you have been a victim of identity theft and ask for your information for your protection.
Other tactics may be an out of the blue ask for help, or that you won a prize with the requirement of sharing personal or banking information to collect.
Do not take the bait! Do not provide your personal or financial information if you receive one of these messages. The best way to ensure the message is legitimate is to inquire about the message you received by using an official number or contact email from that company and notify the company that you have received it. Do not use the contact information provided by the message in question. There is never any harm in questioning a message even if it is genuine. And remember - no one should ask you for your personal or financial information unless you initiated the contact/request in the first place.
If there are any downloads or links contained in those unexpected website popups or emails, do not click on them. Often those links may cause damage to your computer or allow for theft of personal information.
Phishing activity can take place by phone or mobile device or even by filling out surveys.
By learning to identify phishing messages, you can help keep your personal and financial information safe. For more information about digital and personal information safety see our Fraud and Scams blog posts.