Phishing involves stealing financial information from an individual or even a corporation. This financial information includes passwords, account numbers, and even Social Security numbers. Basically, any information that can be used to clean out your account or max out your credit cards is at risk. An even worse scenario is that you can become an identity theft victim because of the sensitive information that has been stolen from you.
So, what can one do to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen to you? Continue reading for a host of helpful prevention measures.
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Don’t just click every link sent to you
This might seem like a basic prevention measure, but it is quite effective. When a link is sent to you, try to look at it before visiting the URL. On some occasions, you’ll find that the address is quite similar but not exact to that of a popular website. There’s a probability that this link has been set up to steal passwords or login information. If you still want to access the link, try to see if you can get to the page via a quick Google search which will provide the website’s correct URL. You can then scour the website to look for that particular information in the link. The entire process isn’t ideal, but it could go a long way in helping you bypass the overtures of potential email scammers.
Don’t disclose any personal information to unsolicited requests
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been contacted on the internet or over the phone, it is imperative that you do not provide sensitive information to anyone you didn’t initiate contact with. As earlier mentioned, these scammers now have a knack for creating pages and even emails that look very authentic. Some even go to the lengths of putting a padlock icon on the page to give you a false sense of security. It is important to be watchful of every detail, no matter how little.
Read more information on phishing
Knowing what to expect will go a long way in ensuring that you don’t fall victim to phishers. That’s why it is highly recommended that you read up on phishing and all the techniques that these scammers use to try and extract sensitive information from unknowing persons. For more details about phishing and its different forms, check out Cybertalk.org. If you are aware of the methods of phishing, the likelihood of you getting scammed becomes considerably less.
Use multi-factor authentication to protect your accounts
These days, the majority of websites and even social media platforms have two-factor or multi-factor authentication which involves a user providing two different passwords or login information to be able to access their account. This ensures that if scammers get a hold of one of the passwords, they still won’t be able to access that account. This, to an extent, will prevent phishers from gaining access to your account.
Always update your browser and apps
Yeah, it can be quite annoying when you get bombarded with update notifications. However, it is advisable that you don’t ignore these updates. These updates and security patches are essential as they are often meant to keep up with new methods of cyberattacks that these scammers think of. Failure to regularly update your apps and browsers may leave you at risk of being targeted by phishers.
