March is Fraud Prevention Month and SaskTel is reminding its customers to practice digital self-defense, to protect themselves and their personal information from falling victim to cyber scams.
Doug Burnett, SaskTel President and CEO says cyber criminals are using technologies to evolve and execute their scams. As a result, he says, “It has become increasingly important for us all to take proactive steps to protect our personal information online and to know what to do when we receive a suspicious message.”
Digital Self-Defense Tips:
✓Use a strong and unique password or passphrase for each online account.
✓Don’t share personal or other sensitive information on social media or online.
✓Use strong anti-virus and anti-malware/spyware software programs on your devices.
✓Keep your device software up to date and install critical security patches as soon as they are available.
✓Know that a legitimate business will never ask for you to confirm personal or account information in an unsolicited email, phone call or message.
Digital Self-Defense – What to do if you receive a suspicious message?
✓Do not open the message, report it to complaints.abuse@sasktel.com and then delete it. In some cases, simply opening the message may compromise the security of your device.
✓If you opened the message, do not reply to it or click on any links or attachments. Instead, follow up with the person or business who supposedly sent it by navigating to their website through a legitimate search engine or by contacting the person directly.