October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month!  I’ve noticed, as I’m sure you have, that spam emails don’t ever stop, they just seem to multiply in my junk folder.  Each day I try to weed out the dozens of emails trying to entice me to update information at my bank, AOL, PayPal, credit union, credit card and numerous other companies.  Plus, I get all sorts of emails wanting me to get ‘free’ government money, learn to do medical billing, participate in a program to make money through Google, get another college degree and numerous other phishing (pronounced fishing) scams. 

There are many people who can’t believe that people fall for these scams. Yet, in the newspaper this morning an article talked about how some scam artists had bilked consumers out of a million dollars.  Obviously there are people who still are falling for these emails.

The FBI also took action against some scammers, using a clever name for their sting – Operation Phish Phry. 

I’m not sure how else we can say it – do NOT respond to emails requesting personal information and delete emails that you don’t know the sender.  It is better to be safe than sorry!  If you think the email might be real, contact the company yourself via phone or by typing in the company’s website address yourself (don’t click on a link) to verify first. 

The scammers aren’t going to stop until we as consumers stop clicking on those emails and responding to them.  When they aren’t lucrative, we’ll stop getting them.