Nov 15 2006
Phishing Has Now Morphed into Vishing
Your personal information is now under attack by a different form of phishing — vishing.
Phishing as you may remember, is when someone sends you a sneaky email pretending to be from someone you trust (a bank, Amazon, eBay, etc) and asks you to click on a link to verify account information. When you click on the link you are redirected to another website that collects your personal access information and steals your information.
Vishing uses a telephone and Voice over IP (VoIP). Basically, someone calls you and states that you need to take an action. They give you a telephone number to call. When you call the number they ask you to enter your account number and password into the telephone system and capture your account info. Unfortunately, the telephone number is a VoIP line that cannot be traced.
In Atlanta, several scams have revolved around utility bills. If you get one of these calls get as much information as you can from the person on the phone. Then call the fraud number at the company they say they represent (not the number given to you by the solicitation). Its safer to call the company on a public number to find out if what you were told is true rather than give your information away to a vishing scam.