Beware of Spam, Part 4

As we discussed yesterday, it’s important to become familiar with the basic steps you can take to protect yourself from phishing scams. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) offers guidelines on how to be more aware, mindful, and proactive about avoiding spam and the potential dangers that come along with it.

Our email and other digital accounts are vulnerable to spam. Make sure you are using security software on all of your devices and set it to update automatically. Don’t ignore the prompts to install updates on your devices as those updates often address vulnerabilities in security that protects against spam messages that contain malware or viruses that can scan and grab your private data.

And think twice before opening attachments or downloading files. If it’s an attachment from an unsolicited email, unexpected message, or from someone you don’t recognize, don’t download it. While it’s true that many email services are better at detecting and blocking these kinds of attachments than in the past, the safeguards are far from foolproof. Attachments may contain viruses or other malware, so it’s not worth the risk.

Because this can happen when you don’t even know it, you should never email personal or financial information of any kind. Never share any account login information by email; cybercriminals have designed ways to detect it as it passes through networks and steal it for their own criminal use. 

You will not always know when your account has been compromised, so it’s critical that you review your credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them or, better yet, monitor your accounts more frequently to look for any activity that you do not recognize.

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