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Dear {First Name},
The phish are biting this spring, and we aren’t talking fishing with poles, but phishing emails from threatening players. Computer security experts have seen an uptick in fake emails, scams, and other electronic threats. While this is not our area of expertise, we wanted to share some tips that may help our clients stay safe. We are grateful to work with an excellent technical team at Northwest Asset Management. They are working behind the scenes to ensure that we are using up-to-date technology and security practices. We are sharing some of their recommendations to help you stay informed.
Tips to avoid scammers on your electronic devices:
· Multifactor Authentication (MFA) – This extra step can feel cumbersome, but the payoff of added security is worthwhile. MFA requires an additional verification step beyond entering the correct username and password. Our advice: *any* time you have the option to enable MFA for a login, you should do so. This is the single biggest change you can make to fight fraud and compromised accounts.
· Most people like to feel helpful. Receiving unexpected gifts is also something that tends to perk us up. Sadly, fraudsters know this, too. Unsolicited emails touting a free iPad for filling out a simple survey and the “important notice” supposedly from your mortgage lender are enticing enough to warrant opening the email, right? Sadly, the overwhelming majority of these are well-disguised attempts of deceit. You just have to resist the urge to open these...send them immediately to the deleted items folder.
· Okay, but what if I think maybe the email is legit? Check the link like a pro! Simply “hover” your mouse cursor over the link (don’t click!). Within a few seconds, the destination of the link will be revealed to you. Read from RIGHT (bottom) to left (top). This is counterintuitive to what we learned all those years ago. Seeing a link such as https://bankofamerica.com.tinyurl.com is not a link to Bank of America, it is a link to tinyurl.com. And that friends, is very, very bad news. This is why it is important to read in reverse. The LAST .com, .biz, .ru, .cn, etc. is the actual destination, not the first .com, .biz, .ru, .cn that you would encounter reading from left to right.
· Get a password manager. We like LastPass but there are many out there. If you re-use passwords, you set yourself up for hacking on accounts that don’t have a multifactor authentication option. Consider this: there are 2.25 billion possible combinations that result from a six-character password without a symbol, whereas there are 7.6 trillion possible combinations when the same password includes a symbol. Wow! But, making passwords more complex makes them harder to remember, and this where password managers can help.
· Make sure you have a good antivirus program installed. While “free” is nice, your $35 a year investment into a good antivirus program is money well spent. Check out this PC Magazine article that evaluates the various antivirus vendors (for Mac computers, too) to help you pick one out: The Best Antivirus Protection for 2022 | PCMag
If you ever have questions about whether or not something you’ve received is from us, please reach out to ask. We’re always happy to ensure that something is legitimate!
Sincerely,
Cass, Bleckley and Megan
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