Cyber Knowledge Center

There is an emerging web impersonation tactic being used by threat actors called third party phishing.  Phishing is one of the oldest, most common, and most successful types of cyber-attacks.  In a traditional phishing attack, a single organization is targeted.

Smishing is a form of phishing that uses text messages (SMS + Phishing = Smishing), where bad actors pretend to be a legitimate organization in hopes of tricking the victim into visiting a fraudulent website, clicking on a link that downloads malware, or getting personal or account information.

Scammers say and do things that can tell us they’re lying — and they’re not who they pretend to be. Of course, to hear or see those clues, we have to get past the panic scammers make us feel, thanks to the so-called emergencies they try to create. And since scammers are convincing, that can be hard to do. But recent scams are costing people their life savings, so here are some sure ways to spot the scammer.

Account takeover (ATO) attacks are on the rise and members of financial institutions all over the United States are falling victim. During a Credit Union threat analysis meeting, it was shared that a woman in Westchester County, NY learned that she had fallen victim to an ATO attack and had over $30,000 stolen from her account. Although all types of accounts are vulnerable to ATO’s , the ones that are the hardest to recover from are financial accounts.

People lose a lot of money to phone scams — sometimes their life savings. Scammers have figured out countless ways to cheat you out of your money over the phone. In some scams, they act friendly and helpful. In others, they threaten or try to scare you.