Top ten tips to keep you and your devices secure

Lincolnshire Against Fraud bring you our top ten tips to keep you and your devices secure from fraud.  

1. Verify any unexpected contact is genuine by using a known number or email address to contact organisations directly. Is this caller who they say they are? After hanging up, wait five minutes and make sure you can hear a dial tone before making any other calls, or use a mobile phone. Never allow an unsolicited caller remote access to your computer or devices.

2. Don’t be pressurised into sending money. Stop, think, and check with a trusted source or person. It’s okay to reject, refuse or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you. Have confidence in yourself if it feels wrong to you – it probably is.

3. Use someone you know and trust for shopping and other essentials. Don’t hand money over to someone on the doorstep. 

4. Authorities like the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will never ask for banking details like your password or PIN on the phone or in person. They will never ask for money and you will never be asked to move money to a ‘safe account’. Police or banking representatives will never ask you to help in an investigation by moving money or withdrawing funds.

5. Check IDs and get them verified. Genuine officials will be more than happy to wait while you verify their ID.

6. Pick strong passwords. Choose three random words with a mixture of upper lower case, numbers, and special characters. Do not use the same password across sites. Enable Two Factor Authentication (2FA) on your accounts and devices that offer it, this provides a second layer of security. Create a separate email password. If a hacker gets into your email, they could get into all your accounts that are linked to it. Make sure you have a strong password and make sure its different to all your others. Save passwords in your browser. Your internet browser will often give you the option to remember your passwords for you. This is a safe way to store your passwords, helping you to create strong and different passwords without having to remember them all.

7. Be wary of phishing. Don’t click on any links or attachments in unexpected emails.

8. Social Media. For those of you who use social media, make sure that it is set up correctly, review your privacy settings to ensure your profile is appropriately locked down.

9. Use antivirus and ensure you are using the latest version of software, apps and operating systems on your phones, tablets, desktops, and laptops. Update these regularly or set your devices to automatically update so you don’t have to worry.

10. Backups. Always back up your most important data such as your phones and key documents to an external hard drive and / or cloud storage.

 #LincolnshireAgainstFraud – joining forces to help protect people in our county from common scams affecting our residents.