We've Been Vished!

What is Vishish?  Vishing is a type of phishing scam but uses voice. It's a type of cybercrime that uses a phone call to steal personal information from its victims. Criminals use certain tactics to convince victims to give up private information and possibly access to their bank accounts.   It’s a newer term for “Phone Scam”.

There are many types of vishing. Vishing frequently involves a criminal pretending to represent a trusted institution, business, or government agency. Sometimes you may be asked to buy an extended warranty, or be offered a free vacation, or a very common one, tell the victims that your computer is infected and you need some help getting it repaired.

Types of “VISH”

Small businesses are often targeted by criminals with this type of cybercrime. The scammers will often exaggerate many types of fake prizes or services. Eventually, they will ask for your credit card number or some other type of personal information to get what they need. Here are some things to watch out for:

• Getting offers from a company that you have never heard of before.
• Maybe you are being told that you won a prize in a contest that you did not enter.
• Maybe the person is pressuring you to make an immediate decision on money, financial account information, personal information, or contact information of coworkers in your company.
• Maybe they will threaten you with fines or penalties if you don't provide the information that they are requesting.
• The caller may be very unprofessional or hostile on the phone. Very commonly these calls will offer to help you with unpaid taxes or debt.
• The caller may tell you that your PayPal account or your iCloud account has been compromised, and they need to log into your computer to remediate the issue.

How do I protect my small business?

If you receive a call from an establishment that you do business with, such as a bank, and they begin to ask you for information such as Social Security numbers or account numbers, hang up. Legitimate businesses you do business with will never call you and ask for that information.

Don't ever pay for prizes or rewards that are offered by a phone call.

Also, the IRS will never call you and ask for debit or credit card numbers over the phone.

Don't trust the caller ID on your business phone. VOIP phones can be programmed to show a certain name and number, even though it's not coming from that phone number.

And above all, never allow remote access to your computer unless you know for sure who is logging in.  We can't stress enough this point. No one should ever be granted access to your computer unless it is your local IT or verified support for a particular software that you use.

If you have any questions or would like to know if you’ve been VISHED, please contact Side by Side IT and we would be glad to discuss the situation with you.