Your comprehensive guide on recognising and avoiding phishing scams

The internet is rife with scammers using various means to contact you and trick you into giving over information.  This article will aim to help you recognise phishing scams so that you can protect yourself and your information adequately.

Phishing scams are where scammers get in touch with you – typically via either email or text message – with the aim of tricking you into giving them important information such as bank details or passwords.  Through gaining this kind of information scammers may be able to gain access to several highly important accounts such as your email or bank account, accessing information or even funds.  The most concerning part is that we are currently experiencing an all-time high of these kinds of scams and many of them are successful.

These kinds of scams are ever-evolving so they may take on different forms every time. They can be hard to spot at first, but there are some techniques that you can use to ensure that you recognise them and are able to avoid them.  Here are some of the key features of phishing scams:

They appear to be from a source that you recognise

Often these kinds of scams will be made to appear like they are from a source that you can trust, such as your bank, a subscription service or the postal service.

They will give you instructions to do something via a link

The important aspect of phishing scams is that they will always instruct you to follow a link and do something, which is how scammers obtain your information.  This can come in all kinds of forms, such as asking you to enter payment information, telling you are eligible for a refund, asking you to confirm personal information or asking you to confirm log-in details.

From the above information, it may seem impossible to be able to tell the difference between a scam and a real email or text from a trustworthy company.  However, there are ways in which you can protect yourself and your company against these kinds of scams:

Give appropriate access to the right company members

Ensuring that everyone in the company only has online access to the information that is absolutely essential to their job reduces the risk of vital information being leaked if you do fall victim to a phishing scam.  Only the most senior company members should have Administrator accounts.

Ensure staff know how to interact with requests

Make sure that staff know exactly who they should be interacting with so that they do not give details or make payments to companies unless they know that it is expected of them.

Know the obvious signs

You can get acquainted with the most noticeable signs of phishing scams and share this with team members too.  Some of the key signs of phishing scams are as follows:

• The correspondence has poor spelling or grammar
• It is addressed to a vague recipient rather than your name or company name
• It asks you to send information or details urgently
• The person asking for payment is not someone you know or expected to pay money to
• They are offering to give you something such as money

Report scams when you notice them

Ensure that if you are the victim of a phishing attack, you report the crime immediately.

Want to protect your business against phishing scams? We can help! Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help your business stay as secure as possible!