Protect Yourself From E-mail Scams
At Symetra Financial, we are serious about keeping our customers’ personal information private and secure.
Symetra maintains and follows a strict privacy policy designed to safeguard our customers’ private information. We do not sell or rent information about you to others, nor do we send e-mail requesting you to respond by divulging personal information.
While we cannot prevent scammers from targeting consumers online, we are diligent about protecting your private customer information.
If you receive a suspicious e-mail that appears to come from Symetra, please contact us at csmail@symetra.com or 1-800-SYMETRA (1-800-796-3872).
Steps to Safeguard Personal Information
We want to help consumers protect themselves against online scams, such as spoof e-mails, “phishing,” identity theft and other criminal activity.
Here are some steps you can take to prevent unauthorized access of your personal information:
- Never provide personal information over the phone, through e-mail or online unless you initiated the request. A trusted business would not ask you for this information, unless you initiated the communication. If you have any doubt about a solicitation, call the customer service center to confirm the status of your account.
- Be leery of e-mail that uses scare tactics. Be suspicious of urgent or demanding appeals that claim your account will be closed unless you provide personal information immediately.
- Do not click on links embedded in e-mails that are unfamiliar to you or that you believe may be fraudulent. E-mail scams often direct victims to fake Web sites that look real, but are not. It is much safer to type the Web address in your browser.
- Review your account statements regularly. Be sure to frequently check your credit card, bank or other statements for any suspicious activity. Report anything unusual to your account provider.
- Use strong passwords for your online accounts. Make your passwords difficult for others to guess by using a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and if allowed, special characters that is at least 8 characters in length. An easy way to remember a strong password is to create it using the first letter of each word of a phrase, and substituting numbers for words like 'for' (4) and 'to' (2). A phrase such as 'My password is easy for me to remember' would become: Mpie4m2r. Symetra Financial would never ask you to validate your password online.
- Ensure the web page you are using to view or enter personal information is secure. Secure web page addresses begin with 'https' which indicates the information being communicated is secure. Some Internet browsers will also display a padlock icon or change the color of the address bar to give you a visual cue that the page is secure.
What Are Some Common Online Scam Activities?
Phishing
Phishing is a criminal activity where thieves attempt to “fish” for personal information by fraudulently sending e-mails that appear to come from a trusted business, such as a bank or other financial institutions. By hijacking trusted brand names, these e-mails direct unsuspecting victims to phony Web sites, where you are asked to provide Social Security and account numbers, passwords and other confidential information. Although these sites may look legitimate, they are not. If you provide the requested information you could become a victim of identity theft.
Spam
Spam refers to unwanted, unsolicited junk e-mail. Unfortunately, it is very easy for unscrupulous e-mailers to “spoof” or substitute a sender’s e-mail address so that it looks like an e-mail is coming from a reputable source.
Proprietary to Symetra Life Insurance Company 8/26/2008
