Important Alert!!!
If you are connected to the Internet, be on the alert for email fraud. More specifically, watch out for brand spoofing or 'phishing' scams: where the perpetrator sends out legitimate-looking e-mails appearing to come from a legitimate company in an effort to phish (pronounced 'fish') for personal and financial information from the email recipient. Be wary of emails with links to Web sites coming from parties pretending to be legitimate companies requesting personal or financial information. Be also on the look out for emails that threaten action against you for failing to respond, again, appearing to come from a legitimate company. Legitimate companies WILL NOT request personal information through email. If you receive one of these emails, or any email of suspicious nature, DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY, and DO NOT respond or act on whatever the email states. Always remember, most companies, including financial institutions, WILL NEVER send customers an e-mail asking for passwords, account numbers or personal information.
Tips For Email Safety:
- Do not provide confidential personal or banking information to anyone in an email.
- Be suspicious of email attachments from unknown sources.
- If you do not know or recognize the sender of the email, do not open the attachment.
- Do not set your email program to 'auto-run' attachments. Always check that emails you have received do not contain viruses by running your anti-virus software when the email attachment is received.
Fake Emails Will Often:
- Ask you for personal information. Fake emails often contain an overly generic greeting and may claim that your information has been compromised, that your account has been frozen, or ask you to confirm the authenticity of your transactions.
- Appear to be from a legitimate source. While some emails are easy to identify as fraudulent, others may appear to be from a legitimate address and trusted online source. However, you should not rely on the name or address in the “From” field, as this is easily altered.
- Contain fraudulent job offers. Some fake emails appear to be from companies offering jobs. These are often work-at-home accounting positions which are actually schemes that victimize both the job applicant and other customers. Be sure to confirm that the job offer is from a known and trusted company.
- Contain prizes or gift certificate offers. Some fake emails promise a prize or gift certificate in exchange for completing a survey or answering questions. In order to collect the alleged prize or gift certificate you may be directed to provide your personal information. Just like with job offers, be sure to confirm that prize or gift certificate is being issued from a known and trusted company.
- Link to counterfeit Web sites. Fake emails may direct you to counterfeit Web sites carefully designed to look real, but which actually collect personal information for illegal use.
- Link to real Web sites. In addition to links to counterfeit Web sites, some fake emails also include links to legitimate Web sites. The fraudsters do this in an attempt to make a fake email appear real.
- Contain fraudulent phone numbers. Fake emails often contain telephone numbers that are tied to the fraudsters. Never call a number featured on an email you suspect is fraudulent, and be sure to double-check any numbers you do call.
- Contain real phone numbers. Some of the telephone numbers listed in fake emails may be legitimate, connecting to actual companies. Just like with links, fraudsters include the real phone numbers in an effort to make the email appear to be legitimate.
If you require further clarification or require assistance determining if an email is fake, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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