How do vishing scams work, how do they impact businesses and individuals, and how can you protect yourself, your family and your business?
We’ve all heard of phishing, the tried-and-tested email scam that spoofs authoritative sources to trick recipients into handing over sensitive information or downloading malware. Well, vishing is its voice call equivalent. It’s a con trick with many variants that can impact individuals and organizations alike – with potentially devastating consequences.
Together phishing, smishing, pharming and vishing cost more than 241,000 victims over $54 million in 2020. And that’s just the cases that were reported to the FBI as many cases of fraud go unreported.
So how do vishing scams work, how do they impact businesses and individuals, and how can you protect yourself from them?
The problem with social engineering
Vishing works across the consumer and business sphere for one very good reason: human fallibility. Social engineering lies at the heart of the bad guys’ efforts. It is, in effect, the art of persuasion. Social engineering is about impersonating a trusted authority – your bank, technology provider, the government, an IT helpdesk worker – and creating a sense of urgency or fear that overrides any natural caution or suspicion the victim may have.
RELATED READING: Would you take the bait? Take our phishing quiz to find out!
