Top 10 Ways to Avoid Phishing Scams

The number and sophistication of phishing scams are increasing. As a general rule, you should advise your employees and customers to be careful about giving out personal financial information over the Internet. The Anti-Phishing Working Group has compiled a list of recommendations that will help you avoid becoming a victim of these scams.

1. Be suspicious of any e-mail with urgent requests for personal financial information.

2. Don’t be fooled by e-mails with upsetting or exciting (but false) statements that try to get you to react immediately.

3. If you suspect the message might not be authentic, don’t use the links within the e-mail to get to a webpage.

4. Don’t fill out forms in e-mail messages that ask for personal financial information.

5. Communicate information such as credit card numbers only via a secure website or the telephone.

6. To make sure you’re on a secure Web server, check the beginning of the URL in your browser address bar. It should be “https” rather than “http.” The “s” stands for secure.

7. Consider installing a Web browser toolbar such as EarthLink’s ScamBlocker to alert you before you visit known phishing fraud websites.

8. If an e-mail message is not personalized, assume it’s not a valid message.

9. Log in to your online accounts regularly, and check bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate.

10. Ensure that your browser is up-to-date and security patches have been applied.