How to prevent vishing attacks to protect personal information and sensitive data

What is vishing?

Have you ever received a phone call or suspicious message from "Support" or "Customer Service"?

Vishing is a social engineering phone call. Scammers lure you to influence you to share your personal information and financial details. Scammers will ask for account numbers and passwords. One of the most popular phrases that a scammer might use is "Your account has been compromised". They will identify themselves as your bank or law enforcement. They will offer to help with installing one of their software. If this sounds familiar, It's probably malware and a scam.

Vishing can be any of the following types of messages. An email, text, phone call, or direct chat message that may appear from a trusted source, but be cautious because it's not.

As vishing propagates, it is getting easier for scammers to contact a higher amount of people with placing as many as a hundred calls at a time, using technology that can spoof the caller ID to display.

How to identify a vishing scam

• The caller will identify themselves as the IRS, Medicare, or a Social Security Administrator.
• The caller will alert you with sense of urgency.
• Information such as your name, address, date of birth, social security number, and bank account information.

How can you protect yourself from vishing attacks?

• Ask for the caller's identity information and a call back number.
• Always avoid pressing buttons from responding to prompts.
• If the call feels as if it's obligated, Hang up!
• Caller IDs can be faked. Meaning the caller is unknown. If this is the case, simply Don’t pick up. Let it bypass to voicemail. Listen to the message and decide whether or not to call back.
• The IRS does NOT call you. They SEND you a certified letter.

How to recover from a vishing attack?

If your credit or debit card information was mistakenly given in the process, contact your bank immediately and cancel your card—request a new one. In addition to the request, ask about canceling the fraudulent transaction and blocking any future charges. If your account information were compromised, you would need to change your account number to ensure it doesn't get used on any future transactions.

How does Iron Cove Solutions protect organizations from vishing attacks with Identity management solutions?

Iron Cove Solutions offers identity protection management tools such as Okta, email and URL filter solutions such as Proofpoint Essentials. For information or on how to get started, contact us at (888) 959-2825