“Phishing” is when you receive a suspicious email telling you that you’ve won a contest or that the company needs to verify personal information. Links in the email can put a virus on your computer to hunt for your sensitive data.
How to Avoid This Scam:
They are almost impossible to avoid and, although it’s vital to have virus protection software on your computer, the best protection is a good sense of judgment. Legitimate companies and government agencies are not going to ask you to confirm your personal information in this way. If it’s a company you already deal with and you aren’t sure if it’s real, don’t click on the link. Instead, go to the company website by typing in their URL yourself, and then log into your account and make sure everything is OK.
How to Spot a Phishing EmailYou can spot a fake email by hovering over the links and checking whether the URL leads to the business's website or, in a scam email, to a third party site. Below is a screen shot of a scam email that supposively comes from Verizon. However, hovering hovering over a link reveals its real destination.
