Quick Reference Chart to Avoid Phishing Scams

Modified on Thu, 28 Mar, 2024 at 10:47 AM

Change your password often.
Use strong passwords. Never use a password that contains "password" or "letmein".
Use a different password for each of your accounts. If you use the same password for your bank account as you do for your email account, you become much more vulnerable to data theft.
Don't open an attachment unless you know who it is from & are expecting it.
Be cautious about email messages that instruct you to enable macros before downloading Word or Excel attachments.
Use anti-virus software on your local machine, and make sure it's kept up-to-date with the latest virus definitions.
If you receive an attachment from someone you don't know, don't open it. Delete it immediately.
Learn how to recognize phishing
- Messages that contain threats to shut your account down
- Requests for personal information such as passwords or Social Security numbers
- Words like "Urgent" - false sense of urgency
- Forged email addresses
- Poor writing or bad grammar
Hover your mouse over links before you click on them to see if the URL looks legitimate.
Instead of clicking on links, open a new browser and manually type in the address.
Don't give your email address to sites you don't trust.
Don't post your email address to public websites or forums. Spammers often scan these sites for email addresses.
Don't click the "Unsubscribe" link in a spam email. It would only let the spammer know your address is legitimate, which could lead to you receiving more spam.
Understand that reputable businesses will never ask for personal information via email.
Don't send personal information in an email message.
Don't reply to spam. Be aware that if you reply to a spam email, your reply most-likely will not go back to the original spammer because the FROM header in the spam message will most-likely be forged.
Don't share passwords.
Be sure to log out.
When a phishing email is determined you can log into the browser based Outlook or your Phone version of Outlook and report these to Microsoft as Phishing. Unfortunately you cannot report via the Desktop version, you can only mark it as junk