JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – Scammers will be out in full force this festive season, trying to get their hands on your personal information in order to steal your identity and much more. Protect yourself by being informed. Here’s how to spot a scam:
• You are offered money for nothing. All you have to do is click on a link, download an attachment or provide some personal information.
• The e-mail or SMS is not personalised. You’re addressed as Sir, Madam or Customer. Communication from legitimate sources is more likely to be personalised.
• You are pressurised into responding. This tactic is often used in lottery, inheritance and competition scams and aims to pressure you to reply before you have time to think. Alternatively scammers can try to scare you into providing information and threaten to close an account or suspend a service if information is not quickly provided. If in doubt, always first check with the company.
• Upfront payment is required. This is common with loan and competition scams. Never provide any upfront payments, no matter how genuine the e-mail or SMS seems.
• Personal or account information is required. Do not respond to an e-mail asking for personal or financial details and never click on a link to provide these details. If you need to transact or want to open an account, type the company’s address into your browser.
• The e-mail or SMS you’ve received is from an unknown sender or someone with whom you’ve never done business. If you’re an FNB client and you receive a payment notification from another bank, it’s probably a scam.
• You are urged to open an attachment. If your bank has never sent you an attachment before, be suspicious. Most financial institutions or retailers do not send attachments. High risk attachment file types include: .exe, .scr, .zip, .com, .bat.
• Look out for the unusual. If the logo looks slightly different, the website address seems odd – it is co.th rather than co.za – brand and product names are incorrect, the spelling and grammar is poor or the message has been sent to multiple recipients then the SMS or e-mail you’ve received could be a scam.
This information was received courtesy of DirectAxis.
