Don’t Become a Victim of Fraud

What to watch out for to avoid becoming a victim of spoofing or phishing scams.

Spoofing
Spoofing is when someone disguises an email address, sender name, phone number, or website URL—often just by changing one letter, symbol, or number—to convince you that you are interacting with a trusted source.

For example, you might receive an email that looks like it’s from your boss, a company you’ve done business with, or even from someone in your family—but it isn’t.

Criminals count on being able to manipulate you into believing that these spoofed communications are real, which can lead you to share personal information such as your banking PIN number or other sensitive information.

Phishing
Phishing schemes often use spoofing techniques to lure you in and get you to take the bait. These scams are designed to trick you into giving information to criminals that they shouldn’t have access to.

In a phishing scam, you might receive an email that appears to be from a legitimate business and is asking you to update or verify your personal information by replying to the email or visiting a website. The web address might look like one you’ve used before, and the email may be convincing enough to get you to take the action requested.

But once you click on that link, you’re sent to a spoofed website that might look nearly identical to the real thing—like your bank or credit card site—and asked to enter sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, banking PINs, etc. These fake websites are used solely to steal your information.

Phishing has evolved and now has several variations that use similar techniques:

Vishing scams happen over the phone, voicemail, or VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls.
Smishing scams happen through SMS (text) messages.
Pharming scams happen when malicious code is installed on your computer to redirect you to fake websites.

So, remember, always be on the lookout for fraudsters and never share your personal information, especially your banking PIN number, with anyone. Fraudsters may be getting smarter but so are you.

Still have questions about scams? Please let us know.