October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In honor of it, below are six security red flags that should always cause you to put your guard up when you see them.

Urgency

Scammers often pressure you to act immediately. Watch out for ‘limited time opportunities’ or language that you ‘must act now’.

Scare Tactics

Scammers will often threaten you with arrest, fines, audits, or other uncomfortable situations to trick you. Pretending to be with the IRS or police is a common scare tactic.

Odd Payment Methods

Asking you to pay by wire, with gift cards, with crypto (such as Bitcoin) or other uncommon methods can indicate a scam.

Requesting Personal Information

Banks, Financial Institutions and the IRS will never call you and ask for your personal information or passwords. Learn more about this at banksneveraskthat.com.

Requiring Money Up-Front

Scammers will claim you need to pay money upfront to cover shipping, taxes, or other costs to receive a prize you ‘won’. In all likelihood, there is no prize and they will take your money and run.

Pretending to be Your Bank

If you receive a call from your bank that seems suspicious, hang up and call your bank on a known number. Banks will not call you and ask for personal or account information.

You’ll find these red flags and more cybersecurity resources on our Security and Fraud Prevention page, and you can also call your local office with any security-related questions.