While phishing attacks are rampant, short-lived, and need only a few users to take the bait for a successful campaign, there are methods for protecting yourself. Most don’t require much more than simply paying attention to the details in front of you. Keep the following in mind to avoid being phished yourself.
Tips to Remember:
- Slow down.
Spammers want you to act first and think later. If the message conveys a sense of urgency or uses high-pressure sales tactics be skeptical; never let their urgency influence your careful review.
- Research the facts.
Be suspicious of any unsolicited messages. If the email looks like it is from a company you use, do your own research. Use a search engine to go to the real company’s site, or a phone directory to find their phone number.
- Don’t let a link be in control of where you land.
Stay in control by finding the website yourself using a search engine to be sure you land where you intend to land. Hovering over links in email will show the actual URL at the bottom, but a good fake can still steer you wrong.
- Email hijacking is rampant.
Hackers, spammers, and social engineers taking over control of people’s email accounts (and other communication accounts) has become rampant. Once they control an email account, they prey on the trust of the person’s contacts. Even when the sender appears to be someone you know, if you aren’t expecting an email with a link or attachment check with your friend before opening links or downloading.
- Beware of any download.
If you don’t know the sender personally AND expect a file from them, downloading anything is a mistake.
- Foreign offers are fake.
If you receive an email from a foreign lottery or sweepstakes, money from an unknown relative, or requests to transfer funds from a foreign country for a share of the money it is guaranteed to be a scam.