In TikTok, a prank is gaining popularity where people call their friends using an automated answering machine voice to tell them that a large amount of money is about to be debited from their account
Οits experts Kaspersky warn that this trend is a real fraud method, called vishing, and is actively used by cybercriminals. Its researchers Kaspersky they detected an increase in the number of vishing emails in June (almost 100.000 in total) and collected approx 350.000 phishing emails between March and June 2022. They also explained how it works vishing and how to avoid falling into this trap of cybercriminals.
The vishing (abbreviation of voice phishing) is the fraudulent practice where people are tricked into calling cybercriminals and revealing their personal and banking information over the phone. Like most phishing schemes, it starts with an unusual e-mail from a large online store or payment system. For example, it could be a letter from a fake version of PayPal which informs the victim that he has just received a request to withdraw a large amount of money from his account.
But here's the difference: While regular messages Phishing ask the victim to follow a link to cancel the order, the email vishing they ask him to urgently call the customer support number provided in the email. Its experts Kaspersky point out that this method was deliberately chosen by cybercriminals because when people look at a website Phishing, they have time to think about their actions or notice signs that the page is not legitimate.
But when victims talk on the phone, they are usually distracted and have a harder time focusing. Under these circumstances, attackers do everything they can to distract them: rushing them, intimidating them, and demanding that they urgently provide their credit card details to cancel the allegedly fraudulent transaction. After obtaining the victim's bank account information, cybercriminals use the information to steal their money, leaving the victim with an empty wallet.
Her experts Kaspersky emphasize that in the last four months (from March to June 2022) have detected almost 350.000 phishing emails, which ask victims to call and cancel a transaction. In June, the number of such emails increased, reaching almost 100.000, leading Kaspersky researchers to predict that this trend is gaining momentum and is likely to continue to grow.
Curiously, the TikTokers they actively repeat one of the methods vishing, with the only difference being that they don't send a fraudulent email beforehand, nor do they steal anything from their victims – their goal is a show, not money. The call is made through an answering machine, whose voice is produced with an online translator. Most often, pranksters pose as a representative from the customer service department of a large online store, claiming that they have just received an order from the victim for several thousand dollars and asking for their confirmation.
Regardless of how the victim responds, the next thing the operator says is: “Thank you, your order has been confirmed". People think the operator misheard them and the money will be withdrawn from their account immediately, so they panic, scream and don't realize they're being tricked.
When people are persuaded to reveal their personal data during a phone call rather than on a phishing page, they often don't have the opportunity to consider that they are the target of a prank – and the large number of TikTok videos with this prank is a prime example of this.
But when people encounter scam calls in real life, they are often affected by several circumstances at once. Such a call can freeze them, while their head is full of other things and they cannot clearly assess who is on the other end of the line – a prankster, a scammer or a real bank security expert. , comments Roman Dedeno k, security expert at Kaspersky .
To protect yourself from vishing, Kaspersky recommends:
- Check the sender's address. Most spam emails come from addresses that don't make sense or appear as gibberish, for example, amazondeals@tX94002222aitx2.com or something similar. By hovering over the sender's name, which may be misspelled, you can see the full email address. If you are not sure whether an email address is legitimate or not, you can put it into a search engine to check.
- Consider the type of information requested. Legitimate companies do not contact you unsolicited via unsolicited email to ask for personal information, such as bank or credit card information, your social security number, or other sensitive data. In general, spam messages telling you to “verify your account information” or “update your account information” should be treated with caution.
- Be wary if the message creates a sense of urgency. Spammers often try to apply pressure using this tactic. For example, the subject line might contain words like "urgent" or "immediate action required" to compel you to act.
- Checking grammar and spelling is an effective way to spot a scammer. Typos and bad grammar are red flags. The same goes for odd phrasing or unusual syntax, which can result from translators translating the email multiple times.
- Install a trusted security solution and follow its recommendations. The safe solution will deal with most problems automatically and notify you if necessary.
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