Phishing is a technique that uses fraudulent websites and falsified emails to trick you into providing personal information like account usernames, account numbers, passwords, and credit card information. In recent years, phishing scams have become more frequent, more sophisticated, and more difficult to detect.
What is email phishing?
Email phishing is where perpetrators use email to try to gain access to your personal information by:
sending you links to websites that appear trustworthy, and then stealing your information when you try to log in
persuading you to reply to an email with personal information
adding a trigger to emails that will download malicious software, in order to steal your data, encrypt your files for ransom money, and other malicious practices.
How to identify a phishing scam
Email phishing can be difficult to identify. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to identify phishing and other email scam efforts.
Video Tutorial: How to identify phishing or scam emails
come from an unknown sender and ask you to provide personal information
apply emotional pressure to persuade you into providing personal information
ask you take action on a matter that you don’t recognize and/or don’t expect
use poor spelling and/or poor grammar
appear to come from a reputable business, but the sender’s email address does not match the company's name
display a suspicious URL when you mouse over links in the email
You can hover your cursor over links in the email to view the URLs they go to, but be careful to not actually click the links if you don't trust them.
How to identify real emails from Shaw
Follow these tips to identify legitimate emails from Shaw:
Phishing scams often try to gain control over email accounts.
There are times when Shaw may ask you to fill out a form, such as a DocuSign form, as part of the customer service process. These forms will always be sent to you by a trusted Shaw source, who you should already be familiar with as part of the customer service process.
If you receive such an email and are not familiar with the sender, contact us to confirm its legitimacy before opening any links or attachments.
Legitimate emails from Shaw will end in @shaw.ca, @marketing.shaw.ca, @shaw.sjrb.ca, @sjrb.ca or @shawdirect.ca.
What to do if your personal information is at risk
Fraudulent messages and phishing attempts often include false messages related to:
declined payments
updating Webmail
signing in to your account
updating billing information
activating your Shaw ID
account changes
mailbox security
mailboxes reaching capacity
If you feel that your Shaw account or banking information may be at risk after opening or responding to a phishing email:
Change your username and password.
Recover/change your My Account password.
Contact Shaw to report an incident related to your Shaw account.
Inform your bank if you feel your banking information may have been compromised.
Contact local law enforcement to open an investigation if you believe you were the victim of a targeted attack.