We have seen a significant shift in the way we interact with other people throughout the years. With this shift comes the emergence of a new generation of criminals that prey on us in order to earn a profit. Our social media postings or fake emails may be used to trick unwary victims into handing over their personal information, or worse, financial data like credit card details to scam artists. And to make matters worse, many people may not know that they have fallen victim to a scam until it is too late to do anything to stop it from happening.
There are many different forms of scams, and vishing is one of them. So, do you understand exactly what vishing is and how to prevent falling victim to it? To understand more about vishing, or if you are unfamiliar with it, you may read our article that explains “What is vishing” and how to avoid vishing.
What is Vishing?
What is vishing? Vishing, also known as voice phishing or phone fraud, is a sort of scam in which the perpetrator attempts to mislead the victim into divulging personal information over the phone. Tommi Puhakka, a Finnish police officer who worked in the 1990s, created the word “vishing” to describe this type of fraud, which has been in use since.
Or, to put it another way, hackers employ vishing to trick their victims into divulging important information such as passwords, account numbers, and credit card information. It works by leveraging Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to deceive consumers into believing they are interacting with a customer support agent for a particular firm.
It usually begins with a phone call informing the victim that they have been picked to earn some sort of award, which they would only obtain if they submit personal information such as passwords and account numbers to the scammer.
There are a variety of different examples of vishing to consider. It occurs when someone calls you and claims to be from your bank or another organization with whom you have an account in order to obtain information about your account. The following are some of the different ways that vishing can occur:
- The caller may claim that they are calling regarding a previous transaction.
- They may inform you that there has been questionable activity on your account.
- They may inquire about personal information such as passwords or PINs.
How to Avoid It?
Today’s world has evolved to the point where vishing has become one of the most common methods for hackers to obtain personal information and other sensitive data from unsuspecting targets. Here are some suggestions for avoiding these types of scams.
- Do not trust phone numbers from unknown sources
- Hang up immediately if it looks suspicious
- Be wary of requests for account numbers, passwords, or other sensitive information
- Avoid giving any personal information on phone calls to strangers
Before ending our article, we would like to add that you may get answers to your questions on Jeton’s blog page. We are always delighted to share our expertise with you because the internet has become a method to stay up with the rest of the world.
