FTC has a message for vishing victims

06.12.2008

Some telecommunications carriers post a similar version of the message that they create themselves, Wood said.

Vishing seems to be a growing problem, for consumers and for technology companies that use VoIP systems.

On Friday, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned of a variation of a new type of vishing attack. By exploiting a bug in the open-source Asterisk VoIP software, criminals have been able to use vulnerable Asterisk systems as their own personal auto-dialers and call potential victims directly. The attack can generate "thousands of vishing telephone calls to consumers within one hour," the FBI said in an posted to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

The FBI is urging Asterisk users to upgrade their software immediately so that their VoIP systems are not vulnerable to this bug.

Although phishing and vishing scams haven't been a big problem for National 1st, the bank is happy to have the FTC messages on the numbers used by scammers, according to Marcia Elaine Lillis, president and CEO of National 1st. "I think every little bit anybody does helps," she said.