Personal Technology Security: What Exactly is Social Engineering? Part II

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Vpn, Vpn Tunnel, Internet, Phone


Yesterday, I discussed two most successful and most prevalent social engineering tactics used nowadays. One emerging tactic that may not be as widespread but just as damaging is VISHING.  What is VISHING? According to wikipedia, VISHING is a form of criminal phone fraud, using social engineering over the telephone system to gain access to private personal and financial information for the purpose of financial gains.

How does it work? Unsuspecting victims will receive a phone call from someone claiming to work for their bank.  The caller will claim that the victim's credit/debit or ATM card needs to be verified to prevent it from being deactivated.  The caller will then ask for the victim's personal information for "verification".  The caller will also ask for the card's CVV/CVC number (it is the three-digit number at the back of the card). To make the conversation appear legitimate, other questions may be asked but all the fraudster actually need from the victim is the CVV/CVC number and it will allow them to perform online purchases almost instantly.

I find it coincidental when a friend send me a message yesterday, a few hours after posting my first Socual Engineering article, saying that his colleague received a call to validate  the colleague's credit card details.  Then a few hours after, 30,000 pesos was charged to the card.  The only advice I could give was to have the incident reported to the bank.  In cases like this, the victim *may* not be able to have the the unauthorized transaction reversed becsuse the victim willingly disclosed confidential information to the fraudster which led to the compromise.  I may be wrong about this but given the circumstance, I am not confident.

There was a time when vishing only happened on more progressive countries.  But as more Filipinos get access to credit cards and do online transactions, vishing incidents will continue to proliferate locally.

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