LONDON—Consumers and companies are being warned to be on guard for an explosion in “vishing” attempts by cybercriminals.
Vishing, or voice phishing, is a social engineering technique used by fraudsters posing as someone from an IT helpdesk or support services in order to obtain personal information from a victim. The fraudster than uses the information to hack into secure systems and defraud victims.
Panda Security is warning the crime has been rising dramatically during the pandemic.
Vishing has increased as hackers are taking advantage of employees working remotely. Since August last year, the United Kingdom’s HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has received reports from the public of more than 215,000 vishing attempts. These scams often offer fake tax refunds or help with claiming Covid-19 related financial support, Global Banking and Finance reported.
“The hacker can be very convincing and will often have done a lot of research into the company and the person they are contacting, to make what they are asking you for sound plausible. At times they even spoof phone numbers, so it looks like the caller ID is authentic and the same number as the real business,” Global Banking and Finance said.