It's Phishing Season!

August 6, 2025

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By: Andrea Harris

Phishing is a common tactic scammers use to trick consumers into willingly giving up personal information such as passwords, bank account numbers, or Social Security numbers. They do this by sending fraudulent emails or text messages posing as representatives of the bank, exploiting customers' trust to collect personal and financial information. With this information, they could gain access to your email, bank, or other accounts, or even sell the information to other scammers. Scammers also use phishing to trick consumers into clicking a link which will download malware onto their computers.

Scammers will update their tactics based on the latest news and trends, but no matter what form they take, there are always red flags you can look out for when you receive a message asking for personal information:

Spelling Errors. Many phishing emails and texts will contain numerous spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. Official company emails are reviewed multiple times before being sent to customers and will rarely contain large amounts of misspelled words or improper punctuation.

Generic Greetings. You should be suspicious of any email or text message that addresses you by the wrong name or does not use a proper name in its greeting.

Urgency. Phishing preys upon consumers who are prone to click before they think. These emails and text messages often tell a story to trick you into clicking on a link or opening an attachment. Some common messages scammers will use include:

• "We've noticed suspicious activity on your account."
• "There has been a problem with a recent payment and we need your account information."
• "You are eligible to register for federal loan payments."
• "You have a delinquent payment on your account. Click the link to update your payment information."
• "Your account will be locked if you do not verify your account information."

In all these examples, the scammers are creating a sense of potential future danger if you do not act quickly. You should always take the time to think before you click a link in a text message or email. More importantly, legitimate businesses will never ask you to provide personal or account information via email or text.

If you are worried one of these messages may be legitimate, you should reach out to your bank directly via their phone number listed on their website instead of clicking on a link or calling a number in an email or text message.

How to Protect Yourself

You can pre-emptively protect yourself from phishing attacks to minimize your risk of being scammed. Some good habits include:

• Install security software. Make sure your computer and your phone have security software installed.
• Set security software to update automatically. Security software is continually updated with the latest security threats. Check your software's settings to ensure that you have automatic updates enabled.
• Enable multi-factor authentication. Many companies now offer multi-factor authentication for their accounts, which requires additional security credentials to access. In addition to your username and password, multi-factor authentication can include security questions, one-time verification passcodes you receive by text, email, or from an authenticator app, a security key, or a scan of your fingerprint, retina, or face. These methods make it harder for scammers to log into your accounts if they manage to steal your personal information.
• Back up your data. Save a copy of your computer or phone data onto an external hard drive or to the cloud.

What to Do If You Suspect Phishing

If you receive a phishing email or text message, report it! This information helps your bank, law enforcement, and the government fight scammers.

Contact your bank to report the phishing attack, especially if you mistakenly gave any information to the scammers. The bank can help you lock down your accounts and issue you new cards so that the scammers won't be able to access your funds.

You should always file a police report if you are targeted by a scammer. Law enforcement keeps a record of these incidents which can help them spot patterns and potentially apprehend cybercriminals.

Report the phishing attempt to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. You can forward phishing emails to the Anti-Phishing Working Group at reportphishing@apwg.org and you can forward phishing text messages to SPAM (7726).

Lastly, review your credit reports and put a security freeze on. This can be done proactively as a consumer.

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