We are familiar with our daily online usage such as an email or SMS. Did you know that these are the most common tools for the online criminals to steal your personal data? From the latest phishing statistics, it shows that most of the victims are well-educated.

The most popular fraudulent way is attempting to steal your sensitive information such as username or password by disguising as a trustworthy entity whether the bank or a financial institute or any internet service provider. Due to an email name or telephone number can be easily impersonated, therefore many people fall for this trick and click the attached fake-website-link in the email or SMS.

After you are lured to connect with the fake website and try to login by inputting your username and password, you click submit, and then all your personal information will be sent directly to the criminal and they can effortlessly login to any of our transaction anytime. And no one to blame because it is your fault that give them by yourself.

However, do not panic because if you look at these messages closely, you will see many suspicious points. So, whenever you receive an email or SMS from a familiar sender to notify or share an information and it has an attached link that need your password or PIN, you should be aware that this may be a trap. This article shows the frequent and common trick that you need to be aware of,

• The email does not mention specific receiver name, only general greeting such as Dear valued customer, Dear credit card customer, or Dear email owner.
• Messages detail are English instead of Thai (This point is only for Thai company who contact with Thai customers.)
• Messages contains an unusual Thai grammar.
• The message claims that they cannot contact you via call, so they need to send this email to asks you to provide or confirm your personal details.
• The message contains or cause some anxiety, curious, award receiving excitement, or need your personal verification in-return.
• There is a button, message or attached website which link to fake website. If you found this email or SMS type, do not panic or rush to click the link. But if you already clicked do not input any information.

In case you received an email, which pretending to be from a legitimate business whether a bank or financial institute and not sure that this email or SMS is true or not, we suggest you do as below,

• Do not give any information or do not open any attachment due to it may contains virus or malware
• Keep the email and notify the bank or financial institute to investigate for any further information
• Call the official bank or financial institute number to reconfirm that they send this message. In case from SCB, should you call our special number: Tel. 02-777-6780
• Delete the email or SMS after confirmation
• In case of you already gave your personal information, urgently contact the bank 

Follow these instructions to secure your online financial transactions,

• Install virus/malware detector programs, frequently update and scan virus to protect your system  
• Do not open or download any untrustworthy file 
• Change password periodically or whenever you are not sure that your sensitive information leak or not 
• Do not make any online financial transaction via public internet 
• Limit daily online transaction amount to decrease unexpected online scam 
   

All above examples regularly happen these days. You must be more careful to prevent losing money!