The Affordable Care Act rolled out yesterday and millions of Americans can now sign up for health insurance online in the health insurance exchanges. The fact that people must access these health exchanges online makes them an extremely attractive destination for online thieves and scammers.
These online predators could take advantage of the confusion created by these new health insurance exchanges and target people who may not be as accustomed to using the computer or going online.
Verizon’s security expert Wade Baker provides the following tips to help consumers better protect their online identity.
- If an e-mail is unsolicited or comes from someone you don’t know that’s a red flag.
- If an e-mail claims to come from an entity, check the e-mail address to see if it’s legitimate. The e-mail domain should be the same as the company sending the e-mail.
- If an e-mail comes from someone you know and it’s asking you to give personal info -- that should serve as a warning. For example, if your health insurance company contacts you to change your password, do not click on things on the site until you check and understand what that institution’s policy is.
- If a link seems suspicious, it’s better to copy the link and paste it in your browser as written versus clicking on it. The link could mask the real URL.
Wade Baker recently spoke about phishing schemes and the Affordable Care Act on NBC, viewable in the video here.
