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Vishing is short for “voice phishing” where the goal of the thief is to access your identity and money using the telephone.
This can be done either through an unsolicited phone call you receive, or a prompt that directs you to call a phone number that is not actually affiliated with an organization you do business with. In either case, the goal is to get you to reveal information related to your account that would grant unauthorized access. Keep the following tips in mind:
- When calling any organization's customer service department, always use the telephone numbers that appear on your last statement or on the website. Do not call numbers found in unsolicited emails or on websites that were sent as a link in an unsolicited email.
- Do not provide personal information to anyone over the phone unless you are the one who solicited the call.
- When in doubt, don't provide any information. Instead, contact the organization you do business with directly and describe the phone or email solicitation you received. If the solicitation was legitimate, the representative you speak with should be able to provide whatever assistance you may require. If not, you will have alerted the organization about the scam, hopefully protecting others while protecting yourself.
Remember, it is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to your personal information. Take the necessary precautions to protect your personal information from getting into the wrong hands.
