Beware of phishing

Phishing is when an unfamiliar party that appears to be legitimate — such as a bank, governmental entity or online company — contacts you with an e-mail or telephone request for personal and financial information. The request is usually prompting you to respond quickly to avoid severe action to be taken against you (such as closing an account), and it may request you to provide account numbers, usernames, passwords and other information.

Once armed with this information, the phishing scammers can steal money from your accounts and even steal your identity, which will require lots of time and money on your part to remedy and could cause irreparable damage to your credit record.