How to Avoid Becoming a Victim of a Phishing Scam

If you receive any unsolicited email from a bank or other institution that asks you to click an included hyperlink and provide sensitive personal information, then you should view the message with the utmost suspicion. If you have any doubts at all about the veracity of the email, contact the institution directly to check.

Never click on a link in an email in order to access the website of a bank or other institutions that may be the target of scammers. The safest method is to manually enter the URL of the institution's website into your browser's address bar.

If you supply sensitive information on a website, always ensure that the site is secure. The address of the page should start with "https://" not just "http://" and the Lock icon should be displayed in the browser's status bar. If these indicators are not present, it means that the site is not secure and information you enter on the site is not protected. Fraudulent web forms related to phishing scams are often non-secure sites. Please note, however, that even an apparently secure site may be fraudulent. The fact that a site appears to be secure is not by itself a guarantee that the site is legitimate. However, legitimate sites that require users to supply personal information will always be secure.

Use firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware software to protect your computer system. Some phishing scam emails may carry trojans or other malware that may compromise your system.

Ensure that your browser, system software and other applications have the latest security updates available. This will reduce the risk of scammers accessing your system via unpatched software vulnerabilities.