Phishing is a scam that identity thieves and the like use to try and trick you into giving personal information, like login, financial, or password data. The scammers pretend to be a trusted company asking you, their victim, to open an email and click on a link or respond to an email with personal information.

Signs that an email is phishing:

• It asks you to provide personal information, like a credit card number or password.

• The message seems like an emergency where you need to respond with personal information right away to avoid something catastrophic, like a large charge.

• The address where you receive the email is different than the one that you provided (i.e., you receive the email on an account you do not use for the particular service).

• There are grammatical errors in the message, random capitalizations, and/or misspelled words.

Example of a phishing email:

The rule of thumb is to never click a link in an email and then enter any personal information. When in doubt, go directly to the website with which you are familiar or call the official source to verify or report the issue (For example, a legitimate official source is the phone number on the back of a credit card).

Fraud by Caller ID

Not to be outdone by phishing emails, fraud attempts can also occur via telephone. Caller ID spoofing is used by scammers to call a victim to get information and use it with malicious intent. In spoofing, the name and/or phone number of a trusted company may display on your caller ID. The caller will identify themselves as a representative of the business and ask for personal information. They may claim there has been suspicious activity on your account or that there is an emergency and someone needs money right away. They may even threaten you.

In the United States you can report scam phone calls to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov or to your local law enforcement agency.