Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Protect Your 800 Number Against Phishing

By Anne Torres

Your toll free number brings you more advantages than any phone number you've had but you just might need to look after it from privacy attacks such as phishing.

Phising is a way of duping people into giving their vital personal data to thieves who fake the identity of a company or institution and create a false necessity for such data to be revealed.

It usually comes in the form of an email or voicemail which alerts you to some fictitious problem and instructs you to give out personal data like credit card numbers, passwords and PINs. Despite the rampancy of these attacks, some people still do fall for these crooks.

There are many ways to get phished. For instance, you get an email from your bank claiming your account has been suspended because of "fraudulent activities" and the only way to lift the postponement is for you to confirm your identity by giving out your PIN. Sometimes, you get a voice mail to your toll free number from Paypal or Moneybookers saying someone has messed with your password and you need to call this certain number so you could update your existing credentials and save your account.

More often than not, phishers use information such as credit card number, expiration date and security code to make purchases using that credit card or to make clones of it. In some cases, these are merely phone number lookup services fishing for unpublished landline and cellphone numbers and addresses to add to their databases. Some phishers even charade as the human resources manager of a certain company saying you you've been personally recommended for a six-figure salary job and the only thing missing is your resume.

If you're nave, you'll almost certainly send it at once. Whether it comes as spam email or voicemail, you can fight back phishing of any type by practicing some very basic precautions. Your first weapon is knowledge. Understanding how phishing works should give you an idea how not to turn out to be a victim. Under any circumstances, don't give your private data unless you're talking to a real live human being working at his desk in an office. Remember, even online companies have announced that they never seek individual information through email nor automated phone calls requesting a call back. That means it should be a lot easier to single out phishers. To look after yourself from phishing, get a PBX software that comes with anti-phishing features to keep the crooks at bay. In you're in an organization, it's wise to implement anti-phishing policies and awareness programs for employees and even create a team of strictly adept personnel to handle cases involving suspicious calls.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment