Nearly everything we do now takes place online. From shopping to managing your Vivint account, your digital footprint is ever-expanding. That’s why it’s more important than ever to understand the dangers of phishing.
What is phishing?
Phishing is a technique used by cybercriminals in which they send you fake messages from a seemingly trusted or reputable source. These messages are usually designed to convince the recipient to click on a link, complete a financial transaction, give access to a system, or reveal sensitive or personal information. Phishing can come in a variety of forms including emails, text messages, phone calls, and social media messages or posts. It is always best practice to be wary of unsolicited communication that asks for personal information or request that you click a link.
Tips on spotting phishing attempts
- Look for a suspicious sender address that imitates a legitimate business
- Hover over hyperlinks to validate that they links to the accurate website. Often, cybercriminals will use tools to spoof URLs. Our official website is Vivint.com (click.simplify.vivint.com is also correct)
- Be on the lookout for poor grammar, sentence structure, misspellings, and inconsistent formatting
- Unsolicited emails requesting a user download and open an attachment is a common delivery mechanism for malware
- Watch out for emotions that create a sense of urgency to get the message recipient to act quickly
