Cyberattacks and scams are on the rise. It’s important to always keep your guard up so you don’t fall victim to one of these schemes. The goal of cyber-criminals and scammers is usually to get money from the victim or valuable information.

Cyberattacks have been increasing consistently, wreaking havoc on individuals and businesses alike. Fortunately, there are some actions you can take to protect yourself. Always be skeptical of text messages, emails, or messages on social media that you aren’t expecting. Especially if the context is out of the ordinary. Don’t click on any links that you receive unless you’re sure that they are legitimate. If a friend sends you an unexpected link on Facebook for example, you might text them and ask if they actually did send that to you. Compromised accounts can look like someone you know, but it may be someone else.

Scammers are increasing their tactics using phone calls, text messages, and voicemail to name a few methods. One new scam that has started being used to trick people into sending the scammers money is called voice cloning. The scammers will take a sample of a person’s voice, either by establishing a phone call prior with them, or via video on social media and then load that voice profile into a sophisticated program that will clone their voice, allowing the scammer to use that person’s voice to say whatever they want it to. Recently, this was used to try to convince a family that their teenage daughter had been kidnapped and was being held for ransom, with the scammers demanding payment for her safety. Fortunately, the daughter called her mother during the scam and the family figured out that it was a fraudulent call and their daughter was safe.

Never give out your personal information like your social security number, credit card number, or other sensitive information over the phone unless you are absolutely certain who you are talking to. If you experience a call from a strange number and someone claims to be your family member or have them with them, always call that person directly and confirm their location and safety.