Prevention of Caller ID Spoofing

• 1

  Block spoofing
  calls. Services such as trapcall.com or safercall.com allow you to
  block calls that display false caller information. Such calls cannot go
  through unless the callers display their true identities.

• 2

  Password protect your voicemail.
  Failure to password protect your voicemail allows criminals to hack
  into your voicemail and steal your personal information and contacts.
  Criminals can use this information to make spoof calls to your contacts
  and phish for sensitive information.

• 3

  Avoid revealing sensitive
  information, such as your credit card or bank account number, via phone.
  Banks will never call you and request such information; they only
  request such information over phone when you initiate the contact. One
  of the main reasons that criminals spoof is to obtain your information.
  Hence, always be on guard, and do not assume the caller ID is always
  accurate.

Prevention of Email Spoofing

• 1

  Safeguard your email
  address and avoid disclosing it. Spammers are one of the biggest
  perpetrators of spoofed emails. Use a spam filter, and always use an
  image to display your email online.

• 2

  Distinguish real emails from
  spoofed ones. Look at the part of the email after the “@” sign. Make
  sure that this part fully matches the company’s name.

• 3

  Examine the email’s language,
  tone and appearance, and note if it is different than usual. A sudden
  difference in tone or appearance as well as excessive grammar errors are
  warning signs.

• 4

  Do not disclose personal
  information. Many spoofing emails will request your Social Security
  number, date of birth or bank account number. Most legitimate financial
  institutions, however, will never request such information via email.

• 5

  Report suspicious emails to the
  company being spoofed. Call the company, or find the email address for
  reporting suspicious activity on its website. Doing so encourages the
  company to alert other customers.