Recently the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team which is a part of the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning about a phishing scam related to the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.  Since its inception, there has been much confusion about many aspects of the Affordable Care Act and scammers are taking advantage of this confusion by sending emails to their intended victims that purport to come from a federal agency involved with the Affordable Care Act in which the person receiving the email is asked for personal information or directed to a website by way of a link that, if clicked on, will cause keystroke logging malware to be downloaded on to the victim’s computer or other electronic device that will enable the scammer to steal the personal information of the victim and make him or her a victim of identity theft.

TIPS

The rules to follow in order to avoid becoming a victim of this scam are simple and easy to follow.  Never provide personal information in response to an email, text message or phone call from someone until you have confirmed that the communication is legitimate.  You can never trust any communication to be from who it purports to be until you have independently confirmed that it is both legitimate and that there is a legitimate need for your personal information.  You can determine whether or not a communication is legitimate or not through a phone call or other communication with the real company or agency that the communication purports to be. Don’t use the phone number, website or email address supplied to you in the communication itself.  You cannot trust it.

Also, never, and I mean never, click on links in any email or text message until you have again confirmed that the communication is legitimate.  Even if the email address from which the message is that of a legitimate company or agency, their email could have been hacked, so never click on a link until you have independently confirmed that it is legitimate.

Finally, make sure you have a good firewall as well as anti-virus and anti-malware software on all of your electronic devices and keep these security programs updated with the latest patches.