The power of vishing: Why it’s effective and how to avoid falling victim

Thanks to the efforts of employers and banks, most of us are familiar with the term phishing. We know if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is – and we’ve sat through training and received the warning emails from our employers, banks and other organizations we interact with on a regular basis to be aware of cyber scam attempts, and read through emails and messages with a critical eye.

Cybercriminals, however, never rest – and as long as there is someone out there who can potentially fall victim, they will keep up their efforts. Vishing – which aims to achieve the same objectives as phishing – uses voice-altering software, phone calls and social engineering to trick users in to revealing sensitive information. Many organizations train employees to spot phishing emails, but fewer raise awareness of vishing phone scams – and in a world where more and more of our everyday communications take place via written messages as opposed to phone calls, vishing attempts capitalize on the ability of a skilled fraudster to manipulate and socially engineer a victim.

Anatomy of a scam