Phishing is a form of fraud in which an attacker tries to deceive confidential or payment data by pretending to be a reliable institution or private person, and the victim, unaware of the evil intentions, voluntarily shares the information.
How to recognize phishing requests?
Phishing messages come in the form of e-mails, posts on social networks, messages in messengers and usually contain:
- Call to action: provide personal information, download a file, follow a link, make a payment.
- Urgency and time limitation.
- Threats or offers of benefits.
- Also often found incorrect grammar, common or informal greetings.
How to protect yourself from phishing?
You can protect yourself from phishing by following simple online safety rules:
- Take your time to follow any links and download files. Remember: first think, then click!
- To obtain information from authorities, use only official resources.
- Do not disclose personal and payment information to unknown persons impersonating employees of financial institutions.
- Set up multi-factor authentication to sign in to accounts.
- Avoid opening files of unknown formats or from unknown sources
- Be critical of posts and messages on social networks.
- Check websites using special services to detect suspicious activities, for example, Google Safe Browsing - Google Report on the availability of services and data.
It is important to notify the Cyber Police if you discover cases of fraud. If attackers try to access your funds through the card, it is recommended that you contact your bank's customer service to block the card and access online banking.
For more information on how to protect yourself from fraudsters and make online purchases safely, read our article "How to shop online safely".
