How to Protect Yourself from Phone, Voicemail, and Text Scams

Raymond James uses the latest technology safeguards 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to help keep unauthorized, outside users from gaining access to internal or private networks and services. In addition to technology, security awareness training facilitates employee understanding of security and privacy policies and procedures to protect your personal information.

Raymond James’ advisors develop long-term, trusting relationships with their clients to help each client reach their goals. Branch associates have processes in place to verify account holder authentication prior to execution of any client transactions.

Raymond James will never initiate contact with you via e-mail or phone, asking for your personal information. We may ask you for pieces of personal information when you contact us to verify that you are who you say you are, but otherwise we already have your personal information.

What is personal information?

Personal information or personally identifiable information is information that can be linked to an individual or can be used to uniquely identify an individual. Your first name or first initial and last name, in combination with any of the following data, can be used to transact business on your behalf:

• Social insurance number
• Driver’s license number
• Financial account number
• Credit or debit card number
• Home address or e-mail address
• Medical or health information

Vishing

Vishing is a term derived from the combination of the words “voice” and “phishing.” Vishing scams target individuals by playing on people’s willingness to provide information to a trusted source. Typically, vishing scams operate in the following manner:

1. A criminal may contact you by phone and claim to be a representative of Raymond James or from one of Raymond James affiliated companies.
2. The criminal may try to convince you of their legitimacy by quoting information obtained from the Raymond James website or from information gleamed from public sources such as LinkedIn.
3. Once the criminal thinks they have your trust, the criminal may ask you to provide personal information over the phone such as your date of birth, home address, or your mother’s maiden name. The criminal may also ask you to transfer money from one account to another or send them money via gift cards.
4. Another trick is for the criminal to phone you and claim that you have received a tax return or a refund from a major retailer. To claim the refund, the criminal may ask you to confirm payment and bank account details.

Below are some tips to protect yourself from cyber threats:

• Never share personal banking or Raymond James account information over the phone.
• Immediately hang up and call your advisor directly to confirm that the phone call is genuine.
• If you accidently share your Raymond James account information:
• Contact your Raymond James advisor immediately.
• Contact three credit bureaus and place a freeze on your credit reports:
• Equifax: 888-766-0008
• Experian: 888-397-3742
• TransUnion: 800-680-7289

Text Message

Scams over text message, or Short Message Service (SMS), are another type of social engineering technique used by criminals. Known as Smishing, these scams take the form of text messages being sent to your phone from an unknown number. Smishing scams work in the following manner:

1. Criminals can send you a text message asking you to click on a link or call them back.
2. When you click on the link or call the criminal back, the criminal can ask you for banking or Raymond James account information.

Steps to protect yourself:

• Do not click on links sent via text message from numbers you do not recognize.
• Verify any request for information by phoning the company directly using an official phone number and not the one included in the text message.
• Do not act out of a sense of urgency or emotion.
• Delete the text message from your phone.

This newsletter has been prepared by Raymond James Ltd. (“RJL”). It expresses the opinions of the writer, and not necessarily those of RJL. Factual data and other information are from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. It is furnished on the basis and understanding that RJL is to be under no liability whatsoever in respect thereof. It is for information purposes only.