Phishing, Smishing, and Vishing | Machias Savings Bank
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Security Center

Phishing, Smishing, and Vishing

Oh My!

Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail or pop-up advertisement that claims to be from a legitimate business or organization you are familiar with. Scam artists recreate pages using information from legitimate web sites in hopes of fooling consumers into providing their personal information. The email or pop-up will ask you to “update” or “validate” your account information, passwords, logins, and will make some form of urgent appeal so that you will respond quickly. The email or pop-up may appear to be from a trusted source such as your favorite community bank headquartered in Machias, shopping site, or a government agency. Clicking on a website link in the email may direct you to a fraudulent web site.

Recognizing Phishing

It may not always be easy to recognize fraudulent emails or pop-ups, but there are some precautions:

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Unexpected Emails or Texts

Like a rogue wave, phishers love the element of surprise. Take a breath…how would you expect your bank to contact you?

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Does It Make Sense?

Where is the email coming from? Does it make sense for this company to be using a Yahoo or Gmail account? Hover over the link if one is provided, does the address make sense? If no, steer clear!

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Urgent Emails

Watch out for e-mails with links, attachments or pop-ups that state an urgent reply is needed or your account may be closed.

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General Greetings

Watch out for e-mails or pop-ups that provide a general greeting and don’t identify you by name.

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Typos and Errors

Fraudulent e-mails or pop-ups may have typographical or grammatical errors. Watch out for poor visual and design quality. Don’t rely solely on bad grammar as a tell. The bots seem to be studying their grammar more closely than most of us did in school.

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Kindly!

A bizarre favorite of the Machias Information Security Team. Kindly must be the first word in the phisher’s playbook. Any unexpected email that includes the word kindly should be taken with a grain of salt.

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Phishing

Want to Learn More, Including Some Tips on How to Fight Back?

Visit the National Cybersecurity Alliance for more information.

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