Fraud Prevention Month - Protect Yourself From Phishing

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At Rogers, the safety and security of our customers is of the utmost importance. March is Fraud Prevention Month and we want to share ways in which you can help protect yourself from the many Phishing scams that are out there. Here are some simple precautions you can take to ensure that your personal details are kept private & protected.

Let’s begin with the basics: What exactly is Phishing?

Phishing refers to a fake email message that tries to trick someone into unknowingly doing something that puts them at risk.  This can include sharing personal information or downloading viruses, like malware or spyware.  

Scammers can also attempt to gather your personal or financial information over the phone. Usually, they make calls to offer you fake rate plans and promise incentives if you complete surveys or if you respond to their requests to “confirm” your account by providing sensitive information like PINs, passwords, or account numbers.

They may also try to gather information through text messages/SMS. Usually, these text messages will ask you to visit a specific website or call a certain phone number where you will be asked to provide information

Remember:  Rogers will never contact you by email, text, or phone to ask for personal information including pin and account numbers

Good to know! But how can I help protect myself from this type of activity?

• Be wary of requests for personal information. Consider this a red flag immediately. Major institutions such as banks and government services will not as ask you to send personal information by email or text.
• Don’t use the same passwords or usernames across multiple accounts. Always create a strong, unique password for your sensitive accounts and change the password often. Fraudsters may access the dark web to get lists of passwords and if you use the same one for multiple accounts, they can log in and take over your accounts.
• Don’t respond to online or phone requests for personal information such as your bank account number, even if they say they are from a company’s customer service, help desk or corporate security department. Reputable organizations like banks will never call or email and ask you for sensitive information. If you’re uncertain, contact the service provider to check if the request is legitimate.
• Be wary of urgent messages, slightly altered websites or email addresses, and emails with spelling and grammatical errors.
• Email messages that promise large sums of money but first require you to pay an “inheritance tax” or try to shock, scare, or guilt you into sending money are almost certainly scams. Delete them immediately.
• Look for the lock. Be sure that any website where you do enter personal or financial information is secure. Such websites will either have addresses that start with “https” or display a small lock icon in the lower-right corner of your browser window.
• There are many resources online you can use to keep yourself safe. Check out the following sites for more information:
• Identity Theft and Identity Fraud Victim Assistance Guide: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/victims-guide-victimes-eng.htm
• Email Fraud/Phishing Information: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams-fraudes/phishing-eng.htm
• The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: https://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/report-signalez-eng.htm

What should I do if I’ve received some suspected spam to my Rogers account?

Remember, we will never ask for personal information like a credit card number or pin when we email, call or text you.

• Think before you click.  Don’t respond to the email, provide personal information online to the sender, send or forward it to others, or click on any links or attachments included within the email.
• Forward the email to abuse@rogers.com and include a brief description of the issue
• Copy and paste the full email headers above the body of the forwarded email
• If you provided your PIN/password in response to the suspicious email, or if you don’t have a PIN/password already set up on your Rogers account, contact us at  Customer Service or 1 (888) 764-3771 to change or create your PIN/password
• For suspicious text (SMS) messages, forward them to: 7726 (SPAM)

To learn more, check out this video:

Did you find this article helpful? Feel free to share your comments and feedback in the comments section below, we’d love to hear from you!