Tips To Avoid Becoming A Phishing Scam Victim

Phishing scams are now a part of everyday life. These usually occur when you receive an email that claims to be from a legitimate business that you have a relationship with, like your bank, credit card company or internet service provider. Posing as the institute the sender would request you to share confidential information. They might even include images and logos from the financial institution, or a link provided in the email may look like it goes to the financial institutions website while the victim is actually sent to a very different site altogether.
Every year a number of failed attempts have been unveiled where fraudsters are emailing account holders of various banks and requesting confidential information such as ATM or credit card pin codes, internet banking passwords, etc. Such emails are commonly known as Phishing Scams.
The best way to avoid becoming a phishing scam victim is to use your best judgment. Additionally always remember the following tips;

Also Read : Security Tips For Online Shoppers

Important points to avoid becoming a phishing scam victim

• Any authentic and secure company or website only has one website and uses no other domain or web address. (Like, PayPal has only 1 domain paypal.com and phisher may offer you to sign-in to paypall.com, paypol.com, etc.).
• Never send an email or reply to any address which addressed you with "Dear user", every bank account or company have your full name in their database, and they always addresses with your name, e.g: "Dear Irfan Ahmad".
• Never to provide your log-in credentials or password/pin information on any email or link. These details are only known to you, and remember your bank representative or website will never ever ask you for such confidential information.
• Do your research (on Google) to ensure the legitimacy of the individual or company.
• Type in the website's address (address bar), rather than clicking a link in an email; ensure a website is secure before submitting personal information.
• Be suspicious of unsolicited emails that request personal information.
• If you believe that someone is trying to commit fraud by pretending to be authentic business, employee or agent contact immediately their helpline or to their customer support service for confirmation.
• Use anti-phishing or anti-virus software.