Czech and Ukrainian police have arrested six individuals responsible for a call center-based vishing scam designed to trick victims into thinking they were already victims of fraud.
Imagine getting a call on your mobile phone from your bank. The caller ID shows the number you have saved in your contacts, so it must be your bank, right? The person on the other end tells you your account has been compromised and the remaining funds must be moved to a safe account. Sounds legit?
According to a Europol press release, this was enough for this criminal gang to take money from victims to the tune of nearly $9 million in Czechia alone.
According to Europol, the gang used spoofed phone numbers to impersonate bank employees and police officers in order to gain the trust of their victims. Once convinced of the “reality” of the fraud that had taken place, victims were asked to transfer any remaining funds from their supposedly compromised bank account to an account controlled by the criminals that was “safe."
This scam underscores the power of social engineering and the need for organizations to put security awareness training in place so that users don’t fall for these malicious tactics.
KnowBe4 enables your workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Over 65,000 organizations worldwide trust the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk.
New-school Security Awareness Training is critical to enabling you and your IT staff to connect with users and help them make the right security decisions all of the time. This isn't a one and done deal, continuous training and simulated phishing are both needed to mobilize users as your last line of defense. Request your one-on-one demo of KnowBe4's security awareness training and simulated phishing platform and see how easy it can be!
