Self-Defense for Online Banking
Tips for protecting yourself from fraud, phishing and vishing
Attackers can come at you from all sides: through email, texting, and phone calls. They’re relentless in their pursuit of your personal identifying information, constantly evolving their strategies, adding new technologies and trying to pick away at your defenses. With so many threats to face, how can you keep yourself safe?A good starting point is to gain a clear understanding of your attackers and the methods they use to target you-primarily fraudulent emails, texts, and phone calls.Phishing –In a phishing attack, a fraudster sends you an email, usually designed to appear as though it is coming from someone you know and trust, such as a friend, a company you do business with or a government agency. The email often contains urgent-sounding language asking you to take action to correct or prevent a problem, such as with an account or transaction. It may contain a link, which takes you to a web page where you are to enter personal information, or it initiates the download of malicious software. Smishing –Similar to phishing, smishing involves the use of fraudulent texts. They are also designed to look like they come from someone you trust and contain a fraudulent link. Vishing –Fraudulent voice calls can be live or pre-recorded. The caller or robocall often claims there is trouble with your financial account, income tax return, Medicare benefits or Social Security. Oftentimes, they claim you have won a prize and need you to take action to claim your prize. Tech support fraud calls are also common.With so many ways you can be victimized, it’s important to have a variety of tools and tips for staying safe when you receive potentially fraudulent messages:
- Look for threatening language. Threats of financial loss are designed to make you panic and act without thinking.\
- Next, look at the overall tone and writing style of the message. If it contains grammatical or spelling mistakes or is written in an unprofessional style, consider these as red flags.
- If an email, look at the sender information. The sender’s email address should contain the company name if it is legitimate.
- Never click a link or open an attachment that is sent to you in an unsolicited message.
- Never provide your personal information, such as an account number, in response to any message you did not initiate.
- If you’re concerned about the content of the message you receive, contact the person or business the message appears to be from directly, using contact information you can verify from an independent source.
- Use spam filters for text and email messages. Allow unsolicited phone calls to go to voicemail or use a screening app to verify calls.
- Keep your devices’ system, security,and virus software up to date to prevent malicious software from infecting your devices.
If you realize you have fallen victim to phishing, smishing or vishing fraud, visit IdentityTheft.gov to learn what steps you can take.
Remember that Red Rocks will never contact you via text, email,or phone to ask for your personal information or financial information. If you receive a suspicious message that appears to be from Red Rocks, please give us a call at (303) 471-7625.
