Are you familiar with the terms smishing and vishing? They’ve been around for a few years now, but they’re not as common as email phishing and haven’t been given as much attention.
Both smishing and vishing are variations on the phish theme: smishing targets SMS text messages, while vishing – or voice phishing – uses automated phone calls.
There has been a noticeable rise in both types of schemes, and attacks are expected to increase during this holiday season.
The majority of reported scams behave like this:
You receive either an automated phone call or a text message purportedly from your bank, telling you there’s a problem with your account. The phone number used to send the message is usually localized so that your own area code appears instead of a 1-8xx number (people are more likely to find the message more believable and respond when the number is more ‘recognizable’). The message will ask you to either call a phone number or log onto a website to provide account information to resolve the issue.
There’s a sucker born every minute.