Vishing - The New Internet Crime

By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News Network
Thursday, July 13, 2006

Phishing has been around for years. You get an email that looks like it arrived from financial institutions like PayPal or Bank of America. It tells about some problem with your account and asks you to login to you account (web interface) and validate / correct certain details. It warns of dire consequences on failure to comply. The scammers have now added a new twist to this plot - Vishing.

Vishing or voice phishing augements the earlier modus operandi as users become more aware of phishing techniques and browsers move to pro-actively identify phishing websites. Fake PayPal emails have been sent by scammers which told users to call a number, where an automated answering service asked for account information.

This is very dangerous because they mimic the legitimate ways people interact with financial institutions. Vishing appears to be flourishing with VoIP technology as it allows international participation in vishing schemes.

How do you protect yourself?
If you get a telephone call from anyone asking you to provide or confirm any of your personal or financial information, immediately hang up and call your financial institution with the number you have on file, not what you may be given by the caller.
via USAToday
Filed under: Computer Security, Headline News, How To, Spam Watch, Web
Discuss Bellow
Discussion

Angsuman Chakraborty
August 20, 2007: 11:23 am

I think you have unfortunately fallen for a scam. You have been duped, plan and simple. Try your best to recover the money, if you can.

khaled amin
August 19, 2007: 2:41 pm

Dear Sir ,
Please , if you don’t mind I would like to ask you some thing :-
I see on the website (www.alibaba.com) company for buying mobile via internet which name is(Georgia Power Company) Phone: 1-301-6751728 , Fax: 1-301-6751728 , who responsible by Ms Ellen Seagrave and i made contact with this company and made deal with it to buy 5 units Nokia N73 which it price(550$) from it and ask them to send me the number account in the Bank to transfer money to it and they give me these informations ,
BANK NAME : CITI BANK N.A BANK
ADDRESS : 111 WALL STREET,NEW YORK, U.S.A
SWIFT CODE: CITIUS33 ROUTING/ABA NUMBER: 021000089
ACCOUNT NAME:FIRST INLAND BANK PLC
ACCOUNT NUMBER: 36147178 (USD A/C)
FURTHER CREDIT TO ACCOUNT NUMBER:118440387702
ACCOUNT NAME: JOSEPH OKOCHA.
and they told me if I need to transfer money by Money gram I can use these informations ,
First Name : Martha
Second Name :Deiss
City :Smyrna
State:Georgia
Zipcode :30081
Country :USA
and when I told them I can’t transfer money by money gram but by western union they told me they can’t accept western union in USA so I must be transfer money to them branch in CANADA and they send me this address to transfer money to it,
First Name:Mary Last Name:Catten
Country: Canada
State:Mississauga
City:Ontario
and I did it but they can’t received money because there is problem in Western Union in Canada Branch so I transfer money from Canada to branch in Russia to they can received money and they did but since they received money every day they told me they will shipping within 5 hours or 7 hours but they didn’t it and once they tell me there is problem in DHL and once td many messages with out any reply so if you don’t mind what’s you advise me or what’s your opinion .
I’m very sorry but I need to your help or tell me who I can send to it.
thanks and best regards,
KHALED AMIN.
Elmehalla Elkobra , Elgharbiya , Egypt
YOUR VIEW POINT
NAME : (REQUIRED)
MAIL : (REQUIRED)
will not be displayed
WEBSITE : (OPTIONAL)
YOUR
COMMENT :
 
Submit