How to Avoid Phishing Scams from Your Gainesville Apartment

Phishing is common practice for identity thieves in the digital age. How does it work? First, the identity thief creates a website which looks similar to one for a legitimate bank, e-mail service, or other online site. Then the thief sends out some form of electronic communication, such as an e-mail or instant message, to thousands of people, asking them to go to a link and enter personal information such as names, account numbers, social security numbers, passwords, etc. The identity thief sends out these messages in the hopes that careless victims will fooled into entering their account details. There are many ways you can find yourself on a phishing website, so it’s worth knowing how to identify them when you’ve been sent to one.

There are a few key things to look for that could indicate a phishing site or e-mail including:

• Web address – Often phishing sites may have a very similar address to the site they are imitating, for example a site phishing for customers of “yourbank.com” may have an address of “yourbank.com.cx,” “ourbank.com,” or “your.bank.com.” Always hover over links in e-mails before you click them so see where they go and read the address bar to verify you are on the right site before you enter your information.
•  Grammar and Spelling – Many phishers target users outside their own countries to make both tracking their crimes and apprehending them more difficult. This means phishers are often attempting to create a website or send an e-mail that’s not in their primary language, with the predictable result of poor spelling and grammar.
• Images – Many corporate websites copy protect the images on their site to help prevent them from being taken, so phishers often need to create their own duplicates. Look for variations in colors, logos, and fonts compared to the images you’re used to seeing, as these can all be strong indicators of a false site or illegitimate e-mail.

Phishing sites are also common places for malware to infect your computer, so it’s smart to avoid clicking on any link you think may lead to one.  One of the best ways to ensure you never end up a victim of phishing is to never log into a site from your Gainesville apartment when you’ve clicked a link to get there. Instead, manually enter the address in your browsers so you can be sure that you’ve gone directly to the legitimate site.

So whether you’re browsing the web from your apartment or the Internet-connected computer in our business center that’s available for all our residents to use, remember to look before you login. To learn more about Bellamay Grand, contact our main office today.