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Protect Yourself from Phishing Scams

Phishing Scams – What you need to know.

Recently, there has been an increase in fraudulent communications from parties claiming to be legitimate businesses. Phishing emails are designed to trick you into sharing your personal information, such as your login, password or banking credentials, by disguising the sender as a company that you may know and trust. Commonly, phishing scams will pretend to be legitimate banks, sweepstakes, call centers and even Revenue Canada.

Whenever you’re browsing the internet and sending communications, it’s important to remember that reputable companies will never ask you to provide confidential information over text message or email. If you receive a notification that you suspect to be fraudulent, do not respond and contact the company directly by calling them. When looking to converse with a company directly, always get a phone number from a legitimate source such as the business’ main website, or an independent source and ask for written communication of your conversation and outcome.

Here are a few tips to consider when you’re navigating the web:

  • Be extremely cautious about sharing personal/confidential information such as your date of birth, email or travel plans on public websites and social networking platforms.
  • Create complex, hard to guess passwords and change them frequently..
  • Be suspicious of unsolicited offers, investment opportunities or contests.
  • Always check the source of information from incoming emails.
  • Never go to your bank’s website directly from a link in an email.
  • Monitor your online accounts to catch any suspicious activity.