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As a reminder, never give out any personal information to anyone unless the source can be verified to be legitimate.
Recently a resident was on the computer when a message popped up stating their private information was compromised and to contact a phone number that was listed on the pop-up, police said. The pop-up message looked legitimate and had the name and insignia of a well known computer software company.
This is known as phishing, Ridgefield police said. Phishing is the attempt to acquire sensitive information (personal information, usernames, passwords, etc.), often for malicious reasons, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.
Once the criminals have someone's personal information, depending on what they were able to obtain, police said they may have the ability to open accounts in that person's name or even access their existing accounts.
In an instance like this, never call the listed number and never click to open any tabs associated with the pop-up.
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