Protect yourself against phishing

Emails or phone calls that try to scam you. Sometimes almost indistinguishable from the real thing. How do you reduce this risk?

How do I recognize phishing?

Examples of phishing include:

• You are called with the message that attempts have been made to withdraw money from your bank account or crypto account. Remember: a bank or crypto company never calls itself. It is always fake. Urgency is often used (you have to do something now to prevent it because someone else is trying to do something on your account).
• They send an email that looks a lot like the emails (or post) from your bank, energy company, credit card, IT department, etc. They often respond to an urgent situation ("You are going on a trip but your credit card needs to be verified. Prevent payment problems and do this immediately!"). Here you can see examples of phishing emails.
• When you click on the link in the email, you end up on a fake website, which is an exact copy of the original. There they try to steal your personal data such as passwords or credit card numbers or they try to get you to install virus software (called ransomware).

How do I prevent phishing?

It can happen to all of us that we fall for phishing. The question is not so much whether, but when, and what the consequences are. But with some knowledge we can reduce the risk. How do you know whether an email or phone call is genuine or not?

• No agency will ask for your password, credit card number, PIN code, etc. If they do, then it is fake.
• Check carefully whether the sender of the message is who he/she claims to be. Check whether the email address (from field) is correct.
• Do not blindly click on links in an email, but check them and copy and paste them into your browser (especially if you have any doubts). Never open an attachment if you do not know the sender or do not expect anything. Files in the attachment (often in a zip file) with the extension .exe or Office files with macros are the most dangerous and can contain viruses.
• If you are in doubt, call or email the organization yourself. Look up the telephone number or email address of the organization and contact them.

How do I repair phishing?

• Is your Solis password known somewhere? Contact CERT.
• Is it about banking matters, such as your PIN code or credit card? Inform your bank.
• Immediately change all your passwords on all websites where you use the password in question.
• You can also report this to the police.

Do you suspect phishing?

Do you suspect that you have received a phishing email and would you like advice? Please contact phishing@uu.nl. This service desk also signals trends in phishing emails that are received and reports these to the CERT.