Tips to avoid fraud and scams

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The basics: turn on your scam radar

Here are some telltale signs of a phishing scam:

• Requests for personal information in an email message – Most legitimate businesses will not ask for personal information, such as your bank account number, in an email.
• Alarmist messages – Criminals attempt to create a sense of urgency, so you'll respond without thinking.
• Misspellings and grammatical errors.
• Slightly altered web/email address – Only close scrutiny would reveal the deceptive spelling. For example, sympatico.ca could appear as sympat1co.ca. Another clue is when the web site’s address contains a series of digits (e.g. http://123.456.789.000/checkaccount).
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is – In particular, don't be fooled by email hoaxes promising easy money.

A few tips on avoiding fraudulent emails

• Be cautious when it comes to opening attachments or downloading files attached to email messages, regardless of who sent them.
• If you get email or see a pop-up asking for personal information (usernames and passwords; credit card, bank account and social insurance numbers), do not reply to it or click on any link in the message.
  Legitimate companies don't ask for this information via email.
• If the email looks like it came from Bell Internet, make sure Bell Internet was the sender before you reply to it or click on any link in the message. View the Bell Internet Email Communication Policy to help you verify the email.
• If you're concerned about your account, contact the organization in question via telephone (using a valid phone number) or open a new Internet browser window and go to the company's real web site (type the name of the organization in Google or enter the company's URL in the address bar)
• Do not send personal or financial information via email.
  It's not a secure way of transmitting any private information. If you need to provide your personal or financial information on an organization's web site, make sure the site is secure—look for a lock icon on the browser's status bar (at the bottom of your screen) or see if the URL (web site address) for the site begins "https" (the "s" stands for "secure"). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof. Some phishers (people who use email to illegally obtain your personal or financial information) have learned to forge security icons.
• Download free "patches" for your operating system (like Windows or Linux) and navigator (like Internet Explorer or Firefox) to close “holes” in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.

Review your statements

Review your statements as soon as you get them, checking for unauthorized charges. To make sure nothing is wrong, carefully check all your credit card and bank statements monthly and regularly log in to your online accounts.

If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.

Use passwords wisely to avoid identity theft

Create strong passwords and keep them secret. Avoid simple-to-guess passwords such as your name and birthday. For example, use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols to increase complexity (something like S2yMp!4At*I8Co).

Your first line of defense in the virtual world begins with your password or personal identification number (PIN). Never share them with anyone and tread carefully on sites that ask to remember passwords.

Choose passwords that you can remember without writing them down.

How to report suspicious activity

Report suspicious activity to Bell Internet's Abuse Department. Just fill out our form . Be sure to include any information that might help us solve the problem.

More on managing email fraud

For more information, also read these sections:

• Tips to avoid spam and other abuses.
• Tips to avoid viruses and dangerous content.

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