The Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology is warning about the dangers of “Phishing” emails. Phishing emails are sent by scam artists hoping to get you to reveal your personal information. The state’s Chief Information Officer, Chris Britten says the message may appear to be from someone you know or a company you do business with, but if anything looks off, be on alert. He recommends this trick:
“If you use your mouse and hover of the link that’s available, it will show where it is going to take you once you click on that link before you click on the link. If it is something from a bank or Amazon, or anything that is coming to my email account and I need to log into use that information, I just go into the browser, type in the URL for that website and I go directly to that website through the URL, not through a provided link in my email because it could definitely be compromised.”
Same goes for the email sender, you can hover your mouse over the email address to see if it’s legit. Britten advises never clicking on a link sent in an email just to be safe. Instead, if it’s from someplace like your bank or amazon, open up a new tab and go straight to the company’s website.
***Report Courtesy of the Illinois Department of Central Management Services***
