Who doesn’t like money?  At some point, most of us dream of getting rich easily and being able to afford a fancy car and a big house.  Unfortunately, some people find a way to easily earn money: by scamming people over the internet.  Hackers and scam artists can easily steal your money and even your identity if precautions aren’t taken to be safe on the internet.

Every year, thousands of people fall prey to scams. Hackers try to make their spam look as legitimate and appealing as possible to trick people into giving up their personal information.  How can the average person recognize potentially dangerous spam?  Watch out for these common signs:

  1. Look out for are overly exclamatory statements (For example: “Download now or your computer will crash” or “You won $10,000 and a trip to the Bahamas! Click now to claim your prize!”).  If a claim sounds ridiculous or too good to be true, chances are it is.
  2. Another common sign of spam in emails is links in the subject or the body. Obviously, some legitimate emails will contain links. O00nly open email links from trusted sources.  Even then, don’t open anything that sounds suspicious as emails can be hacked.
  3. Any email asking for personal information to “verify”, “claim a free prize”, or any other illegitimate reason is likely out to steal your identity. Never enter personal information on a website that is not secure or that seems suspicious.
  4. Any logos that imitate popular companies are likely scams. For instance, clicking on a mock-up of Google called “Gogo Search” with the same fonts and colors is likely to result in a virus being downloaded on your computer.
  5. Bad grammar is often a sign of a scam. An email that claims to be from a major company, but that has typos and grammar errors is likely fake.  Companies take the time to proofread all their work; hackers often do not.

Even with proper precautions, you can still be fooled by Phishing scams.  If you think that you have fallen prey to Phishing, here’s what to do:

  1. Change your password immediately. If you think a scam artist has access to your account, the easiest thing to do is to lock them out with a new password.  Make sure the password is secure, with letters, numbers, and characters.
  2. Change your credit card number, drivers license number, etc. If you can change personal information, immediately change what you believe has been compromised.  Report phishing to the company and request a new card.
  3. If you sent unchangeable information, such as your social security number, make sure other related information is changed. For instance, if you sent you social security number and the answers to your challenge questions, change the questions.  This gives the hacker one piece of information instead of two.

Phishing can be hard to avoid, but following the proper precautions can save you significant amounts of time and money.  Keep your identity safe and follow the proper steps if you believe your information has been compromised.