The Vishing Guide

Vishing is the practice of leveraging IP-based voice messaging technologies (primarily Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP) to socially engineer the intended victim into providing personal, financial or other confidential infor-mation for the purpose of financial reward. The term “vishing” is derived from a combination of “voice” and “phishing.”

The use of landline telephony systems to persuade someone to perform unin-tended actions has existed since the birth of the telephone. Who didn’t make prank phone calls as a child?

However, landline telephony services have tra-ditionally terminated at a physical location known to the telephone company and could therefore be tracked back to a specific bill payer. The recent mas-sive increase in IP telephony has meant that many telephone services can now start or terminate at a computer anywhere in the world. In addition, the cost of making a telephone call has dropped to a negligible amount.