What Is "Phishing"?

Phishing is a method used by criminals to trick people into revealing personal or financial information. Scammers use many methods to lure victims, including legitimate-looking emails appearing to be from a trusted company or bank.

Phishing attacks and other scams can be difficult to detect. Criminals often copy company logos and Web site design in order to make these emails appear genuine.

Fraudulent Gift Card Offers

In addition to email attacks, there have been recent examples of fraudulent Web sites offering free merchant gift cards or other rewards for completing a survey. The survey often asks for credit card or personal information, or requires purchases of services or items to qualify for the "free gift." Beyond providing information to the unauthorized site, participation in the survey and embedded offers may also release personal information to unknown third parties for further exploitation.

To lure visitors, some of these Web sites attempt to appear as the merchants themselves. In some cases, links to these sites appear in the results list after searching for the targeted merchant on search engines such as Google™.

How to Avoid These Scams

1. Trust your instincts.
   If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is. All L.L.Bean promotions are advertised either in our catalogs, at llbean.com and/or our stores.
2. Be careful when clicking links from search engines or email.
   If you are unsure about the validity of a link to L.L.Bean, do not click it. Instead, enter www.llbean.com directly into your browser's address bar to go directly to our site. You may find it convenient to save this address in your Web browser's "Favorites" or "Bookmarks" folder.
3. If you receive a fraudulent email and have not opened it, delete it immediately.
   If you're uncertain of the legitimacy of an email, Web site or promotional offer that appears to be from L.L.Bean, please contact customer service at 800-341-4341 or email fraud@llbean.com.
4. Don't send personal information via email.
   Email is not a secure method of communication. Never include your social security number, credit card number, PIN or account password in an email.

Please note that the only time L.L.Bean will ask for credit card or other account information online is during secure transactions at llbean.com or if you’re using our Direct to Business Web site, llbeanbusiness.com. We will never request this type of information at another site or via email.

For details on how L.L.Bean gathers and uses information from customers, please see our privacy and security policies.