Phishing is when a cybercriminal poses as someone trustworthy to lure sensitive information from unsuspecting victims. A phishing attempt might be an email claiming to be from a known and trusted institution like a bank that requests the person receiving the email to provide or confirm their account information or password. Or it could be a text message that appears to be from a reputable retailer and includes a link that, if clicked, installs malware onto the victim’s device. Cybercriminals use these and many more methods to appear trustworthy and “phish” for access to critical information. M&T Bank can help you combat their attacks.

Signs of phishing attacks that you can look for include unfamiliar email addresses, typos, oddly worded subject lines and suspicious links or attachments. At a glance, these things may appear normal or from someone you know. But because bots usually generate phishing attempts, they often don’t perfectly mimic an actual human. The irregularities can be spotted by a trained eye, and M&T Bank can help you and your staff learn to recognize the clues.