Stay aware of scams
Email scams (“phishing”)
Email scams, commonly referred to as phishing, lure victims into providing personal information such as account numbers, passwords, and usernames. The emails often appear to come from legitimate sources and often link to doctored versions of the would-be sender’s website. After victims provide their personal information, thieves can access their accounts or even steal their identities. To protect yourself against phishing, never give out personal information—especially debit or credit card information or account numbers—unless you have initiated the request.
Social media scams (“farcing”)
With most people using social media, farcing is becoming more and more common. Fraudsters who attempt to defraud by farcing often send friend requests to victims and their friends and family. Many people blindly accept these requests simply because they appear to have “friends” in common. Once the scammer has access to your social media profile, they can victimize you in a number of ways such as breaking into your home while you’re on vacation or gaining access to financial data by “selling” you something. Protect yourself against this type of scam by only accepting friend requests from people you know and by making posts visible only to friends.
Website scams (“pharming”)
Pharming, sometimes called domain spoofing, is the act of creating a nefarious website that mimics that of a legitimate organization. In reality, the site is duped and intended for fraud. Protect yourself against pharming by reviewing a link before you click on it, especially if the link is in an email from an unknown sender. Shopping sites with the VeriSign network offer an additional layer of authentication and can be more trusted than others.