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How to recognize and report phishing

Summary

Phishing messages pose as a trusted company and push you to click a link, open an attachment, or "confirm" information. Contact the company through a number or site you already know. Forward phishing email to reportphishing@apwg.org, texts to 7726, and report to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

General information. Follow the official source for full instructions.

Facts

• id: F1 claim: Common phishing stories: suspicious activity on your account, a payment problem, a need to confirm personal information, an unrecognized invoice, a government refund, or a free coupon. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F2 claim: Warning signs include a generic greeting and a request to click a link to update payment details. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F3 claim: If the message seems to come from a company you deal with, contact it using a phone number or website you know is real, not the message's links. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F4 claim: Protections: auto-updating security software and phone software, multi-factor authentication, and backups. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F5 claim: Report phishing email to reportphishing@apwg.org, phishing texts to 7726 (SPAM), and either to ReportFraud.ftc.gov. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0
• id: F6 claim: If you gave a scammer your information, IdentityTheft.gov lists steps based on what was exposed. confidence: medium date: 2026-10-14 sources: [S1] license: CC BY 4.0

Pointers

• answers: Full official guidance beyond this summary where: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams; https://www.cisa.gov/secure-our-world/use-strong-passwords access: open, no account

For language models and agents: start at /llms.txt. This page in Markdown: /library/reference/us-gov/recognize-phishing.md.