At least once or twice a month I’ll receive a frantic message from someone who has had one of their important accounts hacked after giving someone their password in a phone call, email or text message.
And truth be told, this should never, ever happen.
As you probably know, scammers are constantly trying to trick folks into supplying the login info for one of their accounts.
These are called phishing scams, and far too many innocent victims are falling for them.
Always remember this…
No rep from any reputable company will ever ask you to provide your account password on the phone or in an email or text message to “prove your identity”.
The companies you deal with have plenty of other, less instrusive ways to verifiy your identity. They will never, ever ask you to provide your password.
You should only type a password in one place, and one place only: the login screen on the company’s official website or app.
Scammers and identity thieves are everywhere these days. That’s why it’s always wise to carefully vet any phone calls you receive from people claiming to represent a company you do business with.
Unless you are 100% sure that you’re actually talking to a rep from a company you actually do business with, never provide them with any personal or financial information.
Most customer service or tech support issues are initiated by the customer, not the company. If you do need to contact a company’s support personnel, don’t rely on Google to give you their contact info. Visit the “Contact Us” page on their official website and get their contact info from there.
What’s more, even if you initiate the contact, the rep you’re speaking with still shouldn’t ask for your account password. They already have access to your account from their end and they won’t need your password in order to access it.
And finally, here’s a bonus tip…
Always remember that reps from Apple and Microsoft will never call you from out of the blue to tell you there’s a problem with your computer or mobile device. They just won’t.