Hello again everyone, it’s great to be able to talk with you again. Just think, by the time you read next month’s article it will officially be Spring, hopefully the weather will reflect that!
I am regularly asked about online safety, so this month I wanted to spend a little time talking about that subject.
Phishing and Email Safety
"Phishing" is an online safety concern that involves fake emails (or spam) written to appear as if they have been sent by a genuine organization with the intent of luring the recipient into revealing sensitive and confidential information such as usernames, passwords, account credentials, personal identifying numbers (PINs) or credit card details. Typically, phishing attacks will direct the recipient to a web page to get the user’s personal information. Phishing can lead to financial loss, identity theft or viruses on your computer.
Reporting phishing attacks
If you receive a phishing email, take these steps to protect yourself and others:
• Contact the company that was being impersonated to learn if they are alerting others of phishing scams and inform them of the incident. Report the incident to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (1-888-495-8501).
If you did not provide personal information to the scam, delete the email. If you did provide personal information, take these subsequent steps:
• Contact your bank or credit card company if any of your financial information was used.
• File a complaint with the Calgary Police Service (403-266-1234) and obtain a police case number. Give this case number to your bank or credit card company.
• Provide the police case number to either Equifax or TransUnion, who are the two credit bureau companies in Canada.
• Run an anti-virus check on your computer.
• Check your e-commerce accounts (PayPal, EBay, Amazon).
• Tell friends and family to be wary of suspicious emails from you.
• Change your passwords.
How can I prevent phishing attacks?
There are numerous actions you can take to limit your chances of becoming a victim:
• Use your best judgment and listen to your intuition. Stop and think before sending personal information over the internet or telephone.
• Delete email messages that ask for personal or financial information.
• Be suspicious of emails with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
• Be wary of emails that start, "Dear Valued Customer", or use other words that evoke a sense of urgency or emotion.
• Remember, no legitimate company will ask for personal information through email.
How to tell if you’re a victim of a phishing attack
The following are possible signs that your computer security may have been compromised by phishing or a virus:
• Your computer behaves strangely, for example it makes unexpected sounds, has lots of error messages or shows changes in files or folders.
• Your computer "freezes" frequently, runs slowly or completely stops responding.
• Computer applications do not work properly.
• Disk drives may be inaccessible or start unexpectedly.
• Your contacts may tell you that they have received email messages from your address even though you haven’t sent them anything.
• Your personal firewall may advise that an application has tried to connect to the internet although it is not a program that you are running.
Hopefully these tips prove useful to you. Most of them are common sense, but sometimes when the unexpected happens we do unusual or irrational things. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments or concerns.
As always, please stay safe and look out for each other. I look forward to talking with you again next month.
