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Spoof Calling is when you receive a call from a phone number that looks similar to your area code and exchange (the first six digits of your phone number) or a caller ID displaying the name of a nearby town or local business. However, the person on the other end is neither a neighbor nor legitimate business caller. The caller is typically a spammer trying to lure you into a scam.

Vishing attacks are directed at specific individuals and employ social engineering techniques, often in combination with spoofed caller IDs and personal information gained through other hacking attacks. They manipulate the call recipient into a false sense of trust in order to extract from them sensitive or protected information. When perpetrated on an employee (who may be particularly vulnerable when in a helpdesk, customer or tech support position), the damage could be catastrophic with prospective loss of proprietary information, financial theft, public relations fallout and costly exposure to regulatory breach.

Appointment reminders, flight cancellations, and other informational calls are legitimate forms of robocalls. However, illegitimate players are leveraging Voice over Internet (VoIP) technology to generate thousands of robocalls to random numbers from an auto dialer. Their messaging, at best, is intended to elicit a purchase but, in growing numbers, is designed to lure the call recipient into a scam. Scammers often employ caller ID “spoofing” to disguise their identity, replacing their source ID with one showing a familiar area code or person (neighbor spoofing), or business name (enterprise spoofing) to entice recipients to answer.