Vishing operates like phishing and tries to persuade consumers to divulge their personal information by claiming that their accounts have been suspended, tampered with, deactivated, or terminated. A couple of variations on the scam have arisen. The first mixes phishing and vishing. The recipient receives an e-mail message but is instructed to call rather than click on a link to verify personal data.
Phishing
With phishing, a criminal sends an e-mail and pretends to be a bank, a credit card company, or a major online merchant, such as Amazon. The e-mail outlines a problem with the person's account and asks the individual to click on a link to verify his or her account information. The user is then directed to a fake site that collects the login and password information and uses it to perpetrate identity theft.
Pharming
Pharming is a scamming practice in which malicious code is installed on a personal computer or server, misdirecting users to fraudulent Web sites without their knowledge or consent. Pharming has been called "phishing without a lure."
Smishing
Smishing is a security attack in which the user is tricked into downloading a Trojan horse, virus or other malware onto his cellular phone or other mobile device. Smishing is short for "SMS phishing."
Virus
A virus is a program or programming code that replicates by being copied or initiating its copying to another program, computer boot sector or document. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail note or in a downloaded file, or be present on a diskette or CD.
Worm
A worm is a self-replicating virus that does not alter files but resides in active memory and duplicates itself. Worms use parts of an operating system that are automatic and usually invisible to the user. It is common for worms to be noticed only when their uncontrolled replication consumes system resources, slowing or halting other tasks.
Spoofing
E-mail spoofing is the forgery of an e-mail header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. Distributors of spam often use spoofing in an attempt to get recipients to open, and possibly even respond to, their solicitations.
Spyware
Spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet, spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software virus or as the result of installing a new program.
Phone Scams (New)
Typically the goal is to get you to reveal personal, bank account information, or to make you do something that will result in unwanted charges on your account. Individuals and businesses are equally affected by these scams although the schemes might be different. Click here to find out more about phone scams.