Get Street Smart about Phishing

Remember that email is not secure. Legitimate companies should never collect information by email and you should never send passwords, account numbers, PINs or any other personally identifiable information over email.
Unsolicited emails that request personal information, even if they come from an employer, school or other familiar source, are often fraudulent. It's always a good idea to call to verify such a request.
Visit retail and banking sites directly; never click on a link in an email to get to an e-commerce site and never cut and paste a link from the body of an email to your address bar to get there either.
Web sites that collect personal information should always have a lock icon at the bottom of the browser and "https" in front of the Web site address—the "s" stands for secure.