Vishing (voice scam).
In plain English
Vishing is phishing by voice call. A caller poses as your bank's fraud department, a tech company, or a government agency and uses pressure and urgency, a compromised account, a fine, a refund, to get you to reveal passwords or codes, or to move money. Scammers can spoof caller ID to show a real institution's name and increasingly use recordings or voice-cloning to sound convincing. Because the call comes to you, the safe habit is to hang up and call back on a number you look up yourself, since a real institution will never lose anything by your doing that.
01Why it matters
A live caller applying pressure in real time is hard to resist, so knowing that hanging up and calling back on a trusted number is always safe takes away the scammer's main advantage.
02The math, step by step
Someone calls claiming to be your bank's fraud team, says your account is compromised, and asks you to read back a code just texted to you. That code is often the login or transfer approval they need. Hanging up and calling the number on your card defeats it, and doing so costs you nothing if the call was real.
03What this is NOT
It is not always distinguishable by caller ID, which can be spoofed. A real bank will not pressure you to share a one-time code or move money on the spot, and it will not object to you hanging up and calling back on the official number.
04Receipts
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