According to FTC (n.d.), phishing is when a scammer sends an email that imitates a reputable brand but includes a link or attachment whose purpose is to steal your personal information. Personal information could include logon credentials. A couple weeks ago, I received an email with ‘thank you’ for your order from ebay but my spam filter caught it. There was a link involved but I didn’t research further.
More at Detecting Email Scams here at YouTube
Next is vishing scams. Basically, Vishing is voice + phishing. The scammer can directly call you or send you an email or snail mail and direct you to call them. According to Osborn (2021), an email is sent to you about an order and directs you to call a number. It is very similar to phishing but unlike sending you to a website to harvest your credentials, you are directed to a number. Osborn (2021) provided an example of a scammer sending an email that purports to be from Amazon and then when you call in, the scammer would request “the order number, customer name, and credit card details before cutting the call and blocking the number.”
Vishing scams can also arrive by snail mail. Take for example, the “Experian” mail about data breach that I received back in March. It directed me to call a number (which I did not call). You can read more about it on my blog at https://suzzettedawes.blogspot.com/2021/03/experian-and-infinity-insurance-scam.html
More discussion on vishing at https://youtu.be/nbORYwYLPHY
Finally, there are smishing scams. Smishing = SMS + phishing. SMS is text messaging.
Smishing may appear to be prevalent than other forms of phishing due to email spam filters filter out most phishing attacks and also people tend to check text messages more than email. According to Koetsier (2019), people prioritize texts over emails. Since people check their texts more frequently, smishing may seem more prevalent than phishing.
Recently, I have received scam texts and discussed it at https://youtu.be/24b8LmS3FF8.
Also, the United States Postal Inspection Service (n.d.) provides some great tips in dealing with smishing at https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/smishing-package-tracking-text-scams
Scams seems to increase frequently and we need to be able to recognize scams so we can protect ourselves. I hope you find this information helpful.
References
FTC (n.d.). How to recognize and avoid phishing scams. Retrieved from https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams
Koetsier, John (2019). Consumers 35X More Likely To See Brands’ Texts vs Emails. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2019/11/14/consumers-35x-more-likely-to-see-brands-texts-vs-emails/?sh=12f2df3b445a
Osborn, C. (2021). Fraudsters employ Amazon ‘vishing’ attacks in fake order scams. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/fraudsters-employ-amazon-vishing-attacks-in-fake-order-scams/
United States Postal Inspection Service (n.d.). Smishing: Package Tracking Text Scams. Retrieved from https://www.uspis.gov/news/scam-article/smishing-package-tracking-text-scams.
