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Protect yourself against e-mail and phone scams
One of the easiest ways to get information is to ask for it. That's exactly what creators of e-mail scams and fraudulent e-mails and phone calls do.
And scammers have got some pretty slick ways of tricking you into giving them your information. But once you know what to look for, you can protect yourself more effectively.
Phishing
Phishing is an e-mail fraud in which a scammer sends legitimate-looking e-mails to gather personal and financial information. The e-mail looks like it comes from well-known and trustworthy websites, such as a bank, a credit card company, a health plan, or even your doctor.
Phishing e-mails often link to some real websites and contain some real phone numbers to make them look legitimate, but they also link to fake websites that actually collect information for fraudulent use.
Vishing
Vishing, which is short for voice phishing, is a new take on phishing. There are a couple types of vishing schemes:
- The scammer sends you an e-mail. But instead of being asked to click on a link, the e-mail gives you a phone number to call and asks you to provide information over the phone. The phone number looks and sounds legitimate. When you call the fake "customer service" number, the voice mail menu leads you through a series of voice-prompted menus that ask for account numbers, passwords, and other information. Your information is being collected and recorded for fraudulent use.
- The scammer contacts you by phone instead of e-mail. The call could either be a recorded message or a live person advising you to take action to protect your account. Often, the criminals already have some personal information about you, such as your account number or credit card numbers, which they repeat back to you so that you feel false sense of security and give your information away.
Don't let it happen to you
Unfortunately, it's getting harder and harder to distinguish phishing and vishing scams from legitimate company's attempts to contact their customers. Spotting fraudulent e-mail or phone calls isn't easy. Look for these tip-offs that may be the sign of a scam:
- A sense of urgency.
Scammers may claim that your account will be closed if you don't confirm your personal information immediately. No matter how urgent the claim is, you always have a few days to confirm that the request is legitimate.
- Requests for security information.
Sometimes scammers say that the company has lost your security information and needs you to update it online. Don't fall for it!
- Typos and other errors.
Some fraudulent e-mails contain typos, grammatical errors, awkward, stilted, or inappropriate writing, poor images, or bad design quality.
- Offers that are too good to be true.
Don't believe e-mails, Web advertisements, or calls that offer to help you earn money by transferring cash.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns you to be suspicious of any official-looking e-mail messages that ask for updates on personal or financial information. If you get one of these e-mails, the FTC urges you to go directly to the company's website to find out if the request is legitimate. Open a new Web browser window and type in the company's website address.
Similarly, treat any phone call asking for personal information with a healthy dose of skepticism. Always ask for a call back number and case number. To check if the request is legitimate, you can always hang up and call the customer service number you got from the company when your account was created.
Report suspicious e-mail
If you do receive an e-mail claiming to be from Kaiser Permanente that seems suspicious, don't click on any links or reply to it.
Remember, there's no harm in reporting a message that you think may be a phishing e-mail but that actually isn't. If you're a Kaiser Permanente member, you can report suspicious e-mails that use Kaiser Permanente's name to Member Services.