Have you received emails that, on first glance, appear to be from a known entity such as Microsoft, UPS, the IRS or even your own IT department? These messages usually have an urgency to them, requiring your immediate attention. Some threaten, some are requesting assistance or state that you’ve been hacked. These messages can be well written and less obvious or contain many grammatical errors. In addition to email, I receive voice messages rather frequently, that claim to be from the IRS or other authority, stating that local law enforcement will be coming to arrest me if I don’t call back. Another message will claim to be from Microsoft stating that your computer has been hacked and they need to remotely access your computer to fix the problem.

These types of scams can cause some real panic. The key when dealing with these types of messages is to breathe, then use a few simple rules to assess whether this could be legit. First, study the email message and ask yourself whether these entities would ever communicate in this manner to address the issues in the message. Secondly, check the email addresses for legitimacy. If claiming to be from Microsoft, does the message have an @gmail.com address. Also hover over the links in the body of the message and notice the URL. They will point to an address that has nothing to do with the supposed entity it claims to come from. Thirdly, let go of the fear and simply delete the message or block the phone number.

Although taking all means to catch these scams, i.e. firewalls, protection software, etc., these types of messages will still infiltrate your inbox and phone number from time to time. If you truly feel you’ve been hacked or find your computer has been compromised, disconnect from your network and/or Internet immediately and call for assistance to minimize damage. Using common sense and having protections in place will go far to avoid being compromised.