Kuzovkin Alexey Viktorovich is the general director of “Infosoft” company, ex-chairman of the board of directors in company group “Armada”. Alexey Viktorovich has huge experience in managing innovative and IT projects.
The world «vishing» represents a combination of words “voice” and “phishing”. Phishing is a technique of tricking that makes users reveal their personal, secret or confidential information. However, instead of using email, ordinary phone call or fake website, as phishers do, vishers utilize the service of Internet telephone (VoIP).
Using the combination of bullying and emotional manipulations, vishers try to play false and make people reveal their personal information.
Examples of vishing
A vishing call is a phone call from someone who pretend to be a representative of a bank, a company issuing gift cards, a collector, a charity organization, a medical service provider or even a tax authority. Their aim is to make you tell them your confidential data during the phone call in order to use it for financial frauds.
Vishing can have several forms:
- Bank fraud is a vishing attack characterized as a phone call from a fake representative of a finance organization. They can speak about some problems with your card, payments or tell about an approved credit. Such scammers can ask to transfer money on another account or tell them your card’s details. They have only one aim which is to get access to your financial data and passwords, so they can steal your money.
- Gift or winning. Another example of vishing attack is a phone call about a free offer or about a winning that you’ve got. However, in order to receive it, you need to pay its delivery and elaboration first.
- A message about a virus from your Internet provider. The frauds ask to give them a distant access to your computer and steal personal data.
- Threats about unpaid fees or taxes. Vishers insist on instant payment and ask for finance details.
- Phone calls about cash benefit delivery or medical service. They pretend to be representatives of social services, retirement fund, hospital in order to get personal data.
The frauds can introduce themselves using anything with the only aim to get confidential information.
Preventive moves against vishing
In order to avoid vishing attacks:
- Never reveal personal data: vishing attacks are planned to make their victim reveal personal information that can be used for frauds by scammers. Never tell your password, finance details or similar data by telephone;
- Always check phone numbers, vishers can call you pretending to represent a legal organization. Before giving them any kind of personal information or follow the instructions of the caller, ask his name and make sure that you can contact him via the company’s official phone number. If the caller tries to talk you out of it, most probably it’s a fraud;
- Never give distant access to your computer, vishers can ask for it under a pretext of harmful software elimination or solution of a problem;
- Inform real organizations about suspicious incidents. Companies usually take action and send warning messages to their clients;
- Do not react on unknown numbers;
- Do not answer voice messages, messengers, emails or messages in social media that request your phone number.
It is almost impossible to protect oneself from vishing using modern technology. There are only caution and good common sense to help.