Do you know who you're talking to?

When I was a child, my mother taught me not to talk to people I didn't know.

Wise person my mother.

A few decades later, we are all immersed in the digital universe and following my mother's advice is not a simple task.

Taking into account some facts:

• Many companies collect our personal data during our digital tasks. It can be when visiting a website, installing an application in the simplest cases, or filling out complete forms to make an online purchase or participate in a promotion.
• Even large companies fail miserably in keeping our data protected.
• Many governments fail in keeping our data protected.
• Our data is traded both legally and illegally.
• The crossing of these data allows us to elaborate complete profiles, quite complete, of any of us.

So one day someone contacts you, it can be by email, phone, or WhatsApp, it doesn't matter. This contact claims to be from your bank, your electricity company, or even a close family member.

It's time to turn on the alerts.

How can you be sure that the person is who they say they are or from the company they claim to represent?

In a few words: there is no way to be sure.

Oh, but they know my government registration numbers, my address, my contract number, and my mother's name. Yes, that's what complete profiles are for, that are created by crossing data from the most diverse sources.

Be suspicious. Especially of phone or WhatsApp contacts, ask for the same information to be sent by email.

Don't confirm any personal information.

If the contact is by email, check if the email is exactly what it says it is.

Don't confuse, for example:

contato@mycompany.com with

contato@myconpany.com

If the email is from a company you have contact with, try to confirm the information by phone.

In summary. There is a huge amount of our data accumulated by entities of the most diverse, and there is a huge amount of malicious agents exploiting these data in the most diverse ways and every precaution is little.

When receiving a communication ask yourself: Do you know who you're talking to?

And following my mother's advice, don't talk to people you don't know.