Financial Education

Phishing is when scammers try to reach you by email or on a website.

Smishing is when criminals use text messaging to reach you. They may pretend they are from your bank and try to get you to provide your personal information. The text message often looks like a bank security message. 

Vishing is when these scammers call you and try to trick you into providing personal information by sounding like a legitimate business or government official. 

Before making a purchase online, make sure the website you are on has "https" at the beginning of its URL with a lock symbol. This means the site has a protected network connection. 

Avoid using public wifi to make purchases online, log into your financial accounts, or access other sites that have sensitive information about you. 

Package delivery confirmation scammers will call or email claiming to be from the U.S. Postal Service or major shipping company and state that you have a package waiting delivery and will ask you to provide personal information. They use this informaion to open credit accounts in your name. 

Here on some signs that an email is a scam, even if it looks like it is coming from a company you know and even use. The email might have a generic greeting, it might state that your account is on hold becasue of a billing problem, it will invite you to click on a link to update your payment and personal details.