NEED TO KNOW - June 2024 - Vishing

Not today, Visher!

Today, we receive phone calls constantly—everything from confirming your doctor's appointment to issues with opening an account.

What is vishing?

Vishing (Voice Phishing) is a tactic cybercriminals use to deceive individuals into revealing personal information or compromising their security through phone calls. Scammers often impersonate trusted entities, manipulate caller IDs, and use VoIP technology to conduct widespread attacks.  

Examples of Vishing attacks —Which ones have you received?

Medicare and Social Security Scams

During open enrollment, vishing scammers may impersonate Medicare representatives to extract personal information, such as medicare identification numbers or banking details. Subsequently, the scammer may exploit the information to unlawfully utilize the victim’s Medicare benefits or steal their funds. Additionally, scammers may falsely represent themselves as agents of the Social Security Administration, issuing threats of suspending or revoking the victim’s social security number.

Bank Impersonation

"Suspicious activity"

A prevalent vishing scam involves perpetrators masquerading as representatives from banks or financial institutions. Whether it’s a live person pretending to be from the bank or an automated message, scammers frequently claim a problem with your account or a recent payment transaction.

Employing persuasive scripts, they deceive individuals into divulging account details or PINs, and in some cases, they may coerce victims into transferring funds to another account under the guise of resolving the alleged issue.

Tech Support Scams

This category of vishing scam often targets older adults aged 60 and above, who are reported to be 398% more susceptible to falling prey to tech support scams than younger demographics, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Scammers may masquerade as technical support representatives from major corporations. In a typical instance of this vishing scam, the perpetrator might contact you, stating they have identified, “a harmful virus on your computer or mobile device” or inform you of an “urgent software upgrade.”

Subsequently, they will employ various tactics to persuade you to disclose information or login credentials. Moreover, they may even request remote access to your devices to “resolve the issue” or “install the update.”

IRS Impersonation

Vishing criminals impersonate government officials, issuing face warnings about unpaid taxes on incite panic and coerce victims into sharing sensitive information or making payments to resolve non-existent problems. Victims often receive pre-recorded messages alleging discrepancies in their tax returns, coupled with threats of arrest warrants if they fail to respond promptly—these scammers commonly spoof caller IDs to appear as if the call is from the IRS. 

How to protect yourself from Vishing Scammers

Scammers will use urgency to manipulate you into complying with their demands.

• Pause, think, and act - Exercise caution, pause, and carefully consider the request and its purpose before proceeding. Hang up and contact them using the contact information on the organization's website. 

• Don't answer the phone or respond to messages from unknown numbers - If the scammers can't reach you, they can't trick you. If you do answer the call, hang up immediately.
• Keep your personal information private - Never give out personal information such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, passwords, or Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) codes to unknown people.