Please be aware: It’s that time of year when bad actors begin phishing for passwords, financial data, and other personal information. These attacks succeed only about 10 percent of the time, but the consequences of a successful phishing campaign can be devastating for victims.
Don’t fall for it. Stay alert, and be cautious whenever you are asked to provide personal information online.
Here are 10 tips to help protect yourself from phishing scams:
1. **Keep** your computer security software up to date, and back up your data regularly.
2. **Ensure** the sender’s email address is associated with the company. Avoid responding to emails that use third-party or suspicious email addresses.
3. **Never** respond to an email that is not addressed to you specifically.
4. **Be wary** of emails containing poor grammar, spelling mistakes, or awkward sentence structure.
5. **Don’t** feel pressured to respond immediately. Creating a false sense of urgency is one of the most common tactics used by phishers.
6. **Look** for the sender’s contact information. If there is no name or phone number provided, the email is likely fraudulent.
7. **Avoid** clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown senders.
8. **Never** provide personal or financial information—including passwords, your date of birth, or banking information—without first verifying that the request is legitimate and necessary.
9. **Change** any compromised passwords immediately, and do not reuse them on other accounts.
10. **If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!**
And remember:
**Don’t trust—verify, verify, verify. When in doubt, verify.**
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