Vishing Scam
27/10/2015 10:40:00A solicitor in the UK has become a victim of a vishing attack (the telephone version of phishing) which has resulted in the transfer of £734,000 of client money to phone scammers.
Scam details
The solicitor explained that she took the call from a woman claiming to be from her bank. They claimed that one of the solicitor鈥檚 bank accounts had been compromised and asked her to phone the bank鈥檚 helpline which was printed on the back of her debit card.
The solicitor ended the call and immediately phoned that number. However, some landlines remain open for up to 60 seconds after the person hangs up (this is also the case in Ireland). Accordingly, as the solicitor called her bank immediately, she ended up speaking to the fraudster because the original call had remained active.
The fraudster advised the solicitor that the bank would call her the next day with advice on how to transfer the money to 鈥渟afe鈥 accounts. The solicitor received this phone call the following day and, following these instructions in the belief that these new accounts were safe, transferred the money in her client account to the 鈥渟afe鈥 accounts.
Upon realising she was a victim of a vishing attack, the solicitor contacted her bank, who was able to retrieve 拢222,000 on her behalf; however the balance of approximately 拢734,000 was stolen.
Precautions
To protect yourself from these attacks, you should:
- be aware of this type of scam and remain vigilant if they receive a call purporting to be from their bank,
- delay making a call for a number of minutes after hanging up, and if possible, make the call from a different phone to ensure that the phone session cannot be hijacked,
- listen for a dial tone when making a call before dialling the number to ensure a new phone session has been created.