Be Skeptical When Asked for Personal Information

If you have an email account, you probably have won the lottery a time or two. Or have found out that someone from Nigeria wants to send you a great deal of money. Most of us know that these are attempts at trying to scam us out of our personal information. This is also known as phishing. You may have even gotten a phone call before saying that you have won a contest. While people legitimately win contests and actually do inherit money sometimes, you need to be skeptical before you choose to give out information. You don’t want to become the victim of identity theft. There are many common phishing schemes that you might see and wish to avoid.

You’ve Won!

Entering sweepstakes is a popular hobby. You might have filled out a form to try to win a Hawaiian vacation before while you were at the store or in some other location. You might have filled out a form to try to win a contest on the internet. When you get an email saying that you’ve won, it can be exciting. When you get these kinds of emails or phone calls, be careful. If you have won legitimately, when the sponsor contacts you to tell you that you’ve won, they will be able to tell you the name of the contest that you won. They will be able to identify who they are. They also will have the information that you already gave you on the form. In almost every case, you will not have to pay money to get your prize (the only exceptions are when they tell you up front that you will have to pay, and then you would probably remember it). If you don’t remember entering, and they don’t identify who they are and what contest you won, it’s probably a scam, or perhaps someone involved in identity theft. If they call you and ask for your bank account information, end the conversation.

Ebay, Paypal, and the Bank Need Your Password

One common phishing scheme is when you get a legitimate-looking email from Ebay, Paypal, or your bank (sometimes a bank you don’t have an account with) saying that there was a problem with your bank account and you need to click on the link and log in right away to fix it. The unsuspecting victim clicks on the link, which leads them to an authentic-looking site asking for their user name and password. You later discover that the link was not the real site at all, and you are now a victim of identity theft. If you ever have questions about an email that you receive like this, you should contact your bank. Never click on these types of links through emails you receive. You can always type www.ebay.com into your internet browser and log into your account from a site that you know is legitimate. Also keep in mind, banks already know your password. You don’t need to give it to them unless you are actually logging in to your account (which you should do by going to their site directly, not through a link.

Help the Firemen!

Occasionally, you might get a phone call saying that the firemen, police, or other organization needs your help. They might want you to donate money to their charity. In some cases, this could be a scam. In other cases, you might be getting a call from a telemarketer that will keep most of your money and only send a small fraction of money to the actual charity. If you really want to help the charity, ask for them to send you some information. Look up the charity directly and call them up yourself. Don’t fall for charities calling you over the phone.

Unsolicited Information

All of these scams have one thing in common: they are asking for unsolicited information. In any case where you give out your information, you should be the one initiating the conversation. You should go to the bank’s web site. You should have been the one filling out the sweepstakes form. You should be initiating the charitable transaction. If you are not calling them up, you shouldn’t be giving out your bank account information, social security number, or even your address over the phone.