Vishing is a type of fraud that is committed through a phone call, deceiving the victim through identity theft. With the rise of new technologies and the widespread use of digital media, scammers have invented new ways to get people’s personal information and steal whatever they can. Vishing is a variant of phishing.
It is precisely for this reason that it is necessary to know in depth what vishing consists of and how to avoid it.
So we care about your safety and that of your family, so we want to help you understand how they carry out this type of scam so that you can react in time and not share your data with anyone you don’t know.
Vishing: scams and fraud by phone
The phone scam called vishing consists of the impersonation of a company or person known by some scammers, through a phone call to the victim to get all the personal information they want.
In this way, and earning your trust, they make it appear that there has been a problem and that they are calling on behalf of your bank or known person, most of the time with social engineering and using the voice over internet protocol, and even modifying the identification of calls to appear as a trusted number. In this way they get them to give them personal, financial data, account numbers or passwords.
It is also possible that they offer their help to install some software or application that, as you can guess, is a malware to steal all the information of the device in which it has been installed.
Types of vishing
Scammers are very resourceful and are continually looking for new ways to trick their victims. The most common types of vishing are:
Identification as bank employee
The victim receives a call in which a person gives his name and identifies himself as a bank employee. It tells them that a fraudulent operation has been carried out with their card or that a serious problem has occurred in their account, and that in order to solve it they need the card details and the unique code that is generated and sent by SMS to the owner’s mobile
Obtaining this data, the scammer can carry out online purchases or make bank transfers.
Computer technical support
Another very common type of vishing is the call from computer technical support that detects a virus on the computer and asks that the payment for cleaning it be made through a platform where the data entered is recorded.
In this way, the scammer acquires all personal information, can install malware on the device, and operate on behalf of the victim.
Telephone Company
Scams on behalf of telephone companies are already very common but there are still many people who fall for it.
In these calls, a telemarketer informs the victim about an error in the invoice and requests the bank details to be able to make the refund.
The telephone companies already have the bank details of their clients and if they want to make charges or refunds they only have to do it in them. So never give your data over the phone or reveal any type of password.
Miracle offers from your trusted company
Another form of vishing is when scammers pretend to be a utility company, be it a telephone, water, electricity, maintenance service, etc., and call the victim telling them that they want to make them a great offer.
If the victim has an active contract with that company, they may feel safe and reveal their personal and banking information, so they should not fall for this scam under any circumstances.
If your company wants to make you an offer, it will never ask for your personal data again, since it already has it and, if it does not have it, it will contact the client by some other means.
Acquaintance or relative in trouble
Scammers can also pose as someone you know who is in trouble. They tell the victim that they need help and to send them money urgently.
How to prevent vishing?
All of us, at some point, can be too confident and fall into the trap of the most cunning scammers. For this reason, it is essential that we know how they act in order to be prepared and not reveal personal or banking information that could pose a problem for us.
Some of the ways to prevent vishing are as follows:
- The bank never asks for any kind of confidential information over the phone.
- If you receive a call that says that it is your bank or company with which you have contracted a service, it is preferable to hang up and call the company directly to validate the authenticity of the call.
- Whenever purchases are made by telephone, it is important to check that the page you are contacting is reliable and complies with all security and data protection requirements.
- If the call comes from strange or unknown numbers, it is better not to answer in order to avoid any type of phone scam.
- You should never give personal or bank information over the phone if you did not make the call yourself and, therefore, you know for sure where you are calling.
Apart from this, if you are interested to know about Information Technology Industry then visit our Technology category.
