SOME 378 people fell prey to various phone scams last year, losing $4.78 million. Here is how you can protect yourself:
Do not give away confidential information such as bank account numbers, passwords and personal identification numbers to third parties, even friends and family. That would be like giving away the keys after locking your home.
Always run independent checks via the official hotlines of the organisations involved, instead of calling numbers listed in an SMS.
Most of these scams play on fear or greed. Legitimate organisations such as banks never ask for information such as account passwords via e-mail or SMS.