Scammers use emails or text messages to trap you into giving them your personal or sensitive information. They may try to steal your online credentials, account numbers, or your social security numbers so that they can get access to your emails, bank account, or any other account. Nowadays, scammers perform thousands of online attacks and are successful. Scammers keep on updating their tactics but there is some sign that helps you recognize a phishing email or text message. Email Spoofing Phishing email and text messages look like they are real and being sent by the companies you know or trust. Phishing emails or text messages often tell a story to force you to click on a link or opening an attachment. Ways to Protect Yourself from Phishing attacks: Be Sensible: You can significantly reduce the chance of being a victim of phishing attacks by being smart and sensible while checking your emails or browsing online. Never click any unknown link in an email to a website unless you are sure it is authentic. If you have any doubt, you can copy the link and search it in the browser. Watch out for shortened links: Cybercriminals often use short links to trick you into thinking that you are opening a legitimate link. So, beware of short links before opening them and should pay more attention to them. Cybercriminals may use these links to steal your personal information or other sensitive information. Does that email look suspicious? Read it again. There are plenty of phishing emails that look fair. Spammers usually spoof emails to encourage recipients to open, reply, or take some action. The most common being brand spoofing. For example, one might receive an email from “service@Paypa1.com” (ending with number 1, instead of small ‘l’) asking for credit card verification or asking to re-login on a link for reasons that demand prompt action but, the email is from a scammer and not from the actual source. Be wary of threats and Urgent Deadlines: Sometimes scammers create urgent deadlines to meet want you to be in hurry to follow the process set by them. So that people in hurry get into the trap. Usually, threats and urgency when coming from what claims to be a legitimate company – are a sign of phishing. Browse securely with HTTPS: You should always browse with a secured website especially when making online payments or submitting sensitive information. Never use a public or unsecured Wi-Fi connection to make online payments or submitting personal information online. Protect your device by using security software: Always install security software in your device like laptop, computer, mobile phone, or any other so that it can deal with any security issue/threat coming to that device. Protect your account by using multi-factor authentication: Always put multi-factor authentication for all your accounts that contain sensitive information or personal data. Multi-factor authentication makes it difficult for scammers to login to your account even if they get your username or password correctly. Companies should invest more in improving security infrastructure and eliminating the chance of phishing attacks by applying DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentic, Reporting, and Conformance) and other technologies to prevent such attacks. So overall phishing attack is totally preventable if the end-users remain cautious and be alert when accessing their emails.