You think you will never fall victim to a phishing attack or any online scam, what with all the information security technologies and data privacy restrictions businesses claim to have put in place to protect us, consumers. While I don’t get that many unwanted emails recently which usually go straight to my spam folder, a few serious-looking messages will sometimes pass through the filter and get into my inbox. Not that you’ll have a hard time figuring out if they’re fake, these email messages make it look like they’re coming from a legitimate company you signed up with, the most common of which are supposedly urgent notifications from banks instructing you to click on a link to update your details. You end up losing your hard-earned money if you don’t think twice before you click.

The internet is rife with heartbreaking stories of people getting duped and their savings drained until empty. Enough to scare you to change your account passwords more regularly. And with all the gadgets we use daily that now pay more attention to security, you’d think we should be good. Not at all, and at a time when we’re faced with uncertainties given the pandemic, these scammers aren’t stopping, in fact, they’re getting better. Last month saw me too busy, and if I didn’t take a second look, I would have been duped. Unsuspecting, with an email that arrived at a bad time.