Avoid Becoming A Victim Of Phishing Scams

• Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information. Phishers typically: 1) include upsetting or exciting (but false) statements in their e-mails to get people to react immediately; 2) ask for confidential information such as user names, passwords, credit card numbers, social security numbers, account numbers, etc.; and 3) do not personalize the e-mail message.
  
• Don't use the links in an e-mail to get to any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic. Instead, call the company on the telephone. Do not use a telephone number included in the message, go to the telephone book or other trusted source.
  
• Avoid filling out forms in e-mail messages that ask for personal financial information. You should only communicate information such as credit card numbers or account information via a secure web site or the telephone.
  
• Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your web browser. To make sure you're on a secure web server, check the beginning of the web address in your browser's address bar - it should be 'https://', rather than just 'http://'. The 's' signifies that the server is secure and requires encryption (decoding) to decipher any information that you provide through that site.
  
• Regularly log into your online accounts and don't wait for as long as a month before you check each account. Also, check your monthly statements when you receive them in the mail. If you notice anything suspicious, contact your financial institution and card issuers quickly.
  
• Ensure that your web browser is up to date and current security patches are installed.
  
• Always report 'phishing' or other suspected internet fraud to the following groups:
  • Forward the e-mail to reportphishing@antiphishing.com;
  • Forward the e-mail to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov;
  • Forward the e-mail to the 'abuse' e-mail address at the company that is being imitated;
  • When forwarding internet fraud messages, always include the entire original e-mail with its original header information intact; and
  • Notify the Internet Fraud Complaint center of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ifccfbi.gov/.