First and foremost, be very aware and careful of anything you do while online. Scam artists are very clever, and they constantly come up with new schemes to attempt to steal your personal information.

Two general tips to help you avoid becoming a victim of phising:

1. If you get an email the asks for your password or other personal information, or an email that asks you to click on a link and log in to a personal account (email, banking, credit card, etc.) ignore it. Do not provide personal information.

2. Before you log in to any site, enter the complete URL. Do this every time. Scammers have created a clever new trick called Tabnabbing which allows them to take control over a computer screen and literally change it to something that appears to be the log in page of a commonly used site. The best way to protect yourself from this and similar schemes is to always type in the full URL of any site before you log in.