Phishing is a type of identity theft. Cybercriminals create emails, texts, social media messages and pop-up windows that look legitimate. They use them to try and trick you into sharing confidential information like: PINs, passwords, and account numbers. Once they have your information, they can use it to commit fraud and take your money.

Let’s say you get an email, text, or online message and you’re trying to decide if it’s legitimate. Start by asking yourself:

Do I know the sender? If you haven’t communicated with this person or company before and you didn’t sign up to receive communication, it could be a scam.

Are there spelling and grammar mistakes? Sometimes the email is just poorly written. Other times the mistakes are intentional to get through spam filters.

Do the colours or design look odd? Perhaps the colours, text size or format are different than the legitimate company usually uses. This might be a scam.