Ever heard of VoIP Phishing? Yes, that is the mode of phishing attacks by hackers! Believe it or not, VoIP has made telecommunication very affordable but at the same it has made users more vulnerable to VoIP Phishing or Vishing (as it is popularly known). Fear not, there are ways to avoid being a victim of vishing.

Phishing is any type of personal data obtained by surreptitious means. Here a hacker will either send an email or voicemail making it appear like a genuine message from an authorized person or organization – either from a bank or an online financial account like Ebay auction site, PayPal or Western Union. This message will request your personal information like account userid and password and thus the hacker will harm you.

An example of phishing on the phone would be – you receive a voicemail from your internet bank stating that someone has hacked into your account and it requires you to call a certain number and verify your userid, password and also the secret security questions. The voicemail is really not from your internet bank but it is made to believe so. Typically, users panic when they hear such voicemails and forget to analyze the situation and think rationally. They immediately call the number stated in the voicemail and give out all the details. Thus they become victims of phishing!

Why is it easier to hack with VoIP rather than PSTN?

Let us examine how VoIP makes it easier for hacker and why didn’t hackers attack the PSTN (Public switched telephone network or the traditional landline telephone)?

* With VoIP, hackers can tamper with the caller ID and make the caller’s number appear like it came from your bank. It is much easier to tamper the caller number with VoIP when compared to PSTN.

* With VoIP, any mediocre programmer can call potential victim’s number without compromising his / her identity. i.e., it is easier for the hacker to mask himself / herself.

* VoIP phone numbers can be quickly generated and destroyed before the authorities can trace the hackers.

* With VoIP, a hacker can simulate an international call using a virtual phone number and then call local numbers for phishing purposes.

* All VoIP hardware like IP phones and routers have become very affordable and can be moved anywhere and used. This makes it easier for hackers to move around and not get caught. Courtesy of Call me now

In general, the VoIP system makes it easier for the hacker to mask his / her identity. PSTN is the most secure system where the hacker has to be an expert to mask his or her identity.

Four Steps to Avoid being a VoIP Phishing Victim

1. Never give out any personal information to an automated telephone system. Usually, the hacker’s voicemail will make it appear that it came from your internet bank and request you to call a phone number wherein you will be received by an automated phone system asking you to enter your password, social security number and other personal details. If you receive such a voicemail, call the number listed on your bank’s website (instead of the one stated in the voicemail) to verify the information in your voicemail or just walk up to your bank office location and let them know about the voicemail.

2. Use anti-phishing software along with your PBX, which will filter out all the suspicious calls. Courtesy of Call me now

3. If you suspect phishing, report it by sending an email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org.

4. Create awareness among your friends, relatives and coworkers about VoIP phishing. This step itself can prevent and discourage hackers in a very significant way.

VoIP is one of the greatest inventions that provide very affordable long distance communication for individual users, small businesses and large corporations. With some awareness and creating awareness about VoIP phishing or vishing, you can avoid being a victim and also prevent others from being victims. Courtesy of Call Me Now

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Computers and the Internet have come a long way in the last 20 years or so.

Up until Microsoft came out with Windows, not a lot of people had home computers, and computers used by businesses were not that commonplace except for the larger companies that had the huge IBM’s and the like.

I recall when I purchased my first computer in about 1993, it had Windows For Workgroups installed on it, and it was a lot different from the present day computer and current versions of Windows. It also cost me about three times what a much more powerful machine costs today.

The Internet and email were just getting started good, and were not even very popular or very much used by most people. I recall telling one of my golfing friends, who was a very successful business man, about my encounters with the internet, and he assured me that it was just a fad and would never amount to a hill of beans.

When I first got the computer, I was so uneducated on using a computer that I didn’t even know how to turn the dang thing on and off correctly. Every evening, I would push the on-off switch to turn it off, and next day when I pushed the same switch to turn it back on, it would rudely inform me that it was having to run scandisk because I did not shut Windows down properly. I thought to myself, you stupid machine, how else to turn you off and on except with the on-off switch?

Well, as time passed I started to learn a few things about how to use a computer, even how to turn it off and on, and also about how to use Windows and all of its features. I didn’t really use it all that much though, more just a toy than anything else.

I later upgraded to Windows 95, and thought it to be much improved over the
older version. A few years later, I purchased a new Pentium computer with
Windows 98. At the same time, I really started to get serious about using the computer, and
also email and the Internet. I found out I could do my banking online, I
could locate and order products over the Internet, I could even search for information over the Internet, and from that time on I was hooked.

I began to think about actually learning how to build my own web site, just to see if I could. I purchased some books about 4 inches thick and began to study HTML, and after several weeks of trying to figure out what looked like a foreign language to me, I managed to create a really bad looking web page. Boy, was I proud!

I thought there must be a better way to learn computer skills, and started buying those hot new “eBooks” that everyone was selling like hotcakes. Some of them were pure junk, but a few were worth the price, and made learning somewhat easier.

I kept thinking, though, that there must be a better and easier way to
learn all of those highly technical skills that I needed to learn. I needed
someone that already knew the skills to give me some “one on one” training, and I
wanted it to be visual, something I could see, and not just reading out of a book or eBook.

That’s when I discovered how to tutorials, where someone who knew the subject actually sat down at a computer and recorded screen shots showing exactly what steps were necessary to accomplish a specific task, and I could sit at my own computer and watch them do it. Now we’re cooking. This is my way of learning!

I began to purchase video tutorials and after several years of learning from them, I feel that I have become fairly accomplished in many computer and Internet skills that would not have been possible if I had tried to do it reading dull boring 4 inch thick books.

I now can easily create web sites using HTML, or with Wordpress or Joomla. I have created several ecommerce sites, several blogs, and all because of video training versus written word training.

A person can purchase video tutorials on a wide variety of subjects. When I purchased my how-to tutorials, it was a matter of paying for them, downloading them, and storing them on my computer. A lot of the time I would be finished with the tutorial in a few days or weeks, and never really need it after that. In some instances though I would go back and watch the video again every few months.

A person can still buy video tutorials, download them, and store them on their hard drive, if they prefer, or they can just “rent”video tutorials, use them for a set period of time, and not actually own them. It is almost always at a much lower price to “rent” video tutorials than if they purchased them. The choice is entirely up to the customer.

There are many, many video tutorials available on the Internet, covering a large variety of subjects, and I recommend them highly for anyone desiring to learn new or specialized computer and Internet skills.

To see a short sample of a video tutorial, check out the video below.

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