Smishing, vishing and phishing: Online fraud and how to stop it

Smishing, vishing, and phishing: what’s the difference?

University College Cork have put together a 5 video series to help you brush up on your financial literacy and spot scams like these well in advance. They’re so good and to the point that we decided we had to summarize them here, but make sure to check out the originals as well.

Video #1 Fraud Boot Camp

Smishing, vishing, and phishing: what’s the difference?

1. Smishing: fraud by text message

2. Vishing: fraud by voice via phone calls

3. Phishing: is the traditional email scam

Despite the three different mediums, all use urgency as a tactic to push potential victims into revealing sensitive information. If you get a strange-sounding text, particularly if it's from a well-known institution, like a bank, delivery service, or the post office, be sceptical right away.

Stop, Think, Check

These three words are your mantra to stop scammers in their tracks when you get any of these attempts to extract your data. If it turns out to be legitimate, no harm done. If it's malicious, you've saved yourself a potentially enormous amount of heartache at no cost and with minimal effort.

Always verify the source if you’re at all unsure before taking action. A legitimate source will never have a problem with this, but scammers always will!

Red Flags

Requests for personal information are a giant red flag and genuine businesses and institutions will never ask for these over the phone. They always follow protocol, will never ask for sensitive information by any insecure means, such as email, phone, or text, and will never pressure you with urgency.

It always pays to take your time, be sceptical, and verify the source of any communication. Once you keep this in mind, it’s extremely difficult for scammers to gain access to your data.

Check out the next article on how to avoid the 'buy now pay later' money trap.

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