Millions of Phishing attacks are attempted daily. What is a Phishing? Phishing is the process in which an individual is targeted by email or telephone by someone posing as a legitimate institution in order to gain personal information of the target. This information can then be used to access a customer’s account and can result in identity theft and financial loss.
Personal Information a Phishing attack may try to gain:
- Email address and password
- Social security number
- Bank information
- Credit card information
- Any other personal information that may be of benefit
Citizens would like to provide the following tips to help avoid these Phishing attacks:
- Never give out any personal information to anyone you don’t know
- Be suspicious of links in emails and pop-ups on websites that ask for personal information
- Be suspicious of email attachments and never download email attachments from an unknown sender
- Be suspicious of emails that have grammar and spelling mistakes.
- Be suspicious of random phone calls from companies asking for personal information.
- Lastly, be cautious when giving out personal information via email, websites, or over the phone. If something does not feel right, it probably isn’t.
Visit the following website for more information and tips for Phishing attacks.
http://www.phishing.org/scams/prevent-phishing/
Remember Citizens will never ask for personal information via email.