Vishing Definition

Using fake phone numbers to trick you into giving away personal information

Vishing is short for voice phishing. It is similar to phishing in that the objective is to obtain personal information fraudulently, but in vishing attacks, the user is tricked into making a phone call, rather than visiting a Web site.

In an instance of vishing, a victim receives a phone call or an email saying that his credit card account has been breached and he needs to call a particular number to correct the problem. The victim then dials the number to fix the account, without realizing that the number is spurious. The number dialed is actually a Voice over IP (VoIP) phone. The victim then enters his credit card number through keystrokes that the VoIP phone can recognize and record

Although people are becoming increasingly aware of phishing, vishing attacks are not well known. VoIP phone subscribers can get an area code and prefix of their choice, making it possible to have area codes and prefixes of valid banks. Such numbers make it easier for attackers to lure people into leaking their confidential data.

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Glossary of Terms

Adware Botnet Cracking Crimeware Cyberbullying Cybercrime Cyberstalking Cyberterrorism Data-Theft DoS-Attack Hacking Hoax-Email Identity-Theft Keylogging Madware Malware Pharming Phishing Ransomware Scareware Smishing Social-Engineering Spam Spyware Trojan Virus Vishing Website-Defacement Worm