How do you know an email is a phishing attempt? There\u2019s no easy way \u2013\u2013 no simple push of a button \u00ad\u00ad\u2013\u2013 to avoid identity theft or sabotaged accounts in today\u2019s fast-paced technological world. First, whatever you do, do not<\/strong> click on a link provided in an email. Instead, review the signs of a potential scam, as provided below. Then, follow the steps at the end of this article to decrease the chances of a security breach in the first place.<\/p>\n An email message showing the last 4 digits of your account number doesn\u2019t make it legitimate. The account may have been hacked, and now the cyber-criminals are trying to trick you into taking another step to compromise additional data.<\/p>\n A legitimate business will never send an email asking for your social security number or EIN information. They also will not ask for your account number, credit card information or PIN number. Avoid responding to these types of emails.<\/p>\n If you receive an email from a legitimate business, the sender should use @domain<\/em> name for the email address. Question emails sent from free email services.<\/p>\n Closely examine the content of the email. If the sender\u2019s message seems less personal than expected, it may be a scam. Also, cyber-criminals use translation software to send emails in almost any language, but the software isn\u2019t perfect. If you see grammatical errors, look more closely. Watch for links three to four lines long as this is another sign of a potential scam.<\/p>\n Never open attachments you\u2019re not expecting. Even if you know the sender, be cautious. If you are not expecting an attachment, email the sender to ask if they sent it. You can also look at the attachment name. For instance, documents with .exe at the end are likely meant to harm your computer.<\/p>\n Be careful when you receive an attachment from someone you do know. For instance, a vicious scam currently affecting Gmail involves receiving an email with an attachment from a friend. What you don\u2019t know is the acquaintance\u2019s account was hacked, and now the cyber-criminal are using it to snag more innocent victims. The scammers hope you\u2019ll click on the attachment to see a preview. But instead of seeing the preview, a window or tab opens up requesting your login information to continue to Gmail. Everything looks normal. But it\u2019s not \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s a fake website created to steal your information and wreak havoc on your personal finance. \u00a0Read on to learn how to recognize these hoax sites.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t assume a site with an appropriate logo and company name is legitimate. You must review the browser address to be certain:<\/p>\n Is the website address really long? If so, this could be a fake site. Look for a bunch of characters after the basic website address. If you see lots of text, this is most likely a text block containing a file to create a fake login page.<\/p>\n Does the address include https:\/\/? Sites that start with https:\/\/ are secure. If the address does not start with this, the link may be a phishing scam.ont Emails promising gifts, such as reward points, free vacations or\u00a0gift cards, are scams if you aren\u2019t expecting them.<\/p>\n If you receive an email indicating your account may be closed if you don\u2019t act immediately, don\u2019t panic and log in. Cyber-criminals have only a short amount of time to get you to act before the company finds out about the problem, so they want you to panic and log-in. Instead, contact the holder of the account directly to inquire if they are planning to close the account in question. You can also type the vendor’s website address directly into your Internet browser, then click on your account to see what\u2019s really going on.<\/p>\n Avoid emails saying you have unauthorized charges and must enter your login information at the provided link. The only way to verify if you truly have unauthorized charges is to call the vendor using a phone number you receive in your billing statement or on the back of a card. Or, type the name the creditor or bank directly into your Internet browser, and then log-in to see what\u2019s going on with your account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently received an email from my bank asking me to update my login information. The email looked legitimate since the last four digits of one of my bank account number were provided in the email. But I quickly realized the email was a phishing scam to obtain my username and password to access my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2184,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[245,9,164],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2183"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2192,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183\/revisions\/2192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paageetcie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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