3. Opening or replying to suspicious emails
Online scammers like to expose information from their victims via a practice called phishing. In general, this is done by simply sending you an email pretending to be from a trusted business or social media site and asking you “to provide or confirm your personal details,” the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) explains.
“Scammers can easily make an email look professional, so check the address of the sender to confirm that it’s legitimate,” suggests Sean Messier, an analyst at Credit Card Insider.
“For further protection, just search for the company’s email yourself, and send an email directly, rather than replying to anything that could be a scam,” he added.