Email & Website Fraud

Phishing is a common online scam designed to trick you into disclosing your personal or financial information for the purpose of financial fraud or identity theft.

Here's how it works:

• You receive an unsolicited email appearing to be from a legitimate company. A typical phishing email will give you a phoney reason, such as a security breach or contest, to trick you into providing your personal information.
  
  
• The email will often include a reason that urges you to click on a link that takes you to a fake website.
  
  
• That fake website will look authentic by copying the brand name and logo of the real company. This phoney site will ask you for personal information such as credit card numbers, account numbers, passwords, date of birth, driver's license number, and social insurance or social security numbers.
  
  

While you may think you are giving your information to a valid company, instead you are providing it to a fraudster!

Why did I receive a phishing email?

You received a phishing email simply because your email address has ended up in the hands of a fraudster.

email addresses are easily obtained and shared on the Internet – just like phone numbers and mailing addresses. But, other than having your email address, it is unlikely the fraudster knows anything else about you – not even your name.

So, these fraudsters need to do three things to be successful.

• target companies with large numbers of customers...the more, the better!
  
  
• send thousands of phishing emails in order to reach as many of these customers as possible (many of the emails are also received by non-customers).
  
  
• write the email messages in such a way as to trick people into revealing their confidential information.
  
  

Click on the above tabs to learn how you can protect yourself against this type of scam!