Phishing scams are fraudulent email messages that seem to come from legitimate sources such as a school, bank or internet service provider. The messages will normally direct you to a spoofed site or will let you reveal information like credit card, password or account updates. The people who are behind this could use the information to do identity theft.

One kind of phishing is an email message that states you are receiving it because of a fraudulent activity on your account and will ask you to ‘click here’ to verify information. These scams are tools that are meant to induce panic to the reader. These aim to trick recipients to responding right away.

To avoid phishing scams, you should be wary of email messages that require you to verify or enter your personal information via a website or by replying to the message. Do not reply or click links in any message if you are not sure of it. When you recognize a fraudulent message, delete the email from your inbox immediately and empty it from your deleted items to avoid accessing the web sites it points to. Keep in mind that these messages often have clickable images that appear legitimate.