Check before you click! How to protect yourself from phishing scams

Gugs Mhlungu spoke to Cybersecurity Consultant at ESET Southern Africa, Lucas Molefe.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.

The internet has revolutionised our lives, but it's also put us at risk of cyber attacks and online scams.

Molefe says there's a constant increase in attempts to steal our personal information as scammers become more sophisticated.

"Our lives revolve around the internet. You can't be going on the internet yet you're not safe because somewhere, somehow there will be vulnerabilities that will come into play."

- Lucas Molefe, Cybersecurity Consultant

"Each month there are over 150 data breaches. The number has escalated from last year till now." 

- Lucas Molefe, Cybersecurity Consultant

With tax season in full swing, one of the more recent phishing scams involves receiving emails from the South African Revenue Service (SARS).

"Whenever we are about to do our tax returns, these scams and notifications escalate to the highest point. Every year they increase because they know that the more they do this, the more they can maybe get individuals to actually click and actually do something about it."

- Lucas Molefe, Cybersecurity Consultant

Molefe provides basic tips to protect your data from scammers: 

• Be aware of what scams are out there
• Have an application that protects you when you are online
• Be very mindful of the links you click on
• Make sure you use strong passwords

"If you know you can't have unique or strong passwords, having a password manager would actually help. It's very important to do these best practices in keeping your personal information safe."

- Lucas Molefe, Cybersecurity Consultant

Scroll up to listen to the full interview.