Phone Phishing: How Fraudsters Leverage Phone Calls for Phishing

Phishing calls are a preferred vector for cybercriminals to steal personal and financial data from unsuspecting victims. These fraudulent calls often form part of larger cybercrime campaigns involving the buying, selling, and hacking of bulk data on cybercrime forums. However, targeted individual attacks also occur, similar to spear phishing attempts through email.

Data Harvesting Fuels The Operations

The majority of phishing call schemes are the result of persistent efforts by cybercriminals to obtain enormous amounts of personal information about potential victims. This mass data harvesting takes place through phishing groups accessing data breaches, hacking, and private purchases.

Phishing operators gain access to large data breaches that are posted on cybercrime forums and private networks. These breaches may include full profiles with names, phone numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and account details that were stolen from major corporations through security failures.

In addition to accessing posted data, phishing groups may hack into databases themselves to extract sensitive personal information on potential targets. They then use this information for future voice phishing attacks.

Phishing operators also buy data that has been exfiltrated in breaches in private deals. Cybercrime forums and networks enable the sale of huge batches of personal data, which phishing groups can purchase to enable voice phishing schemes.

By buying and selling data on forums and marketplaces for cryptocurrency, cybercriminals can gain access to millions of victims' full names, contact information, and personal histories, enabling automated and targeted fraud.

Partnerships Empower The Operations

Individual scam callers do not typically operate in isolation. They frequently form joint ventures. While groups collect and sell personal information, some cybercriminals manage the infrastructure for automated phishing call campaigns.

The fraudulent call revenue is laundered by associates who specialise in money laundering services. When accounts are compromised by phishing operators, the credentials are quickly sold to other criminal organisations that specialise in quickly monetising financial information before victims can respond.

These organised collaborations and caller ID spoofing enable successful global phishing campaigns that use voice interactive bots to deceive users into divulging one-time passwords or account credentials. The combined data and financial theft feed a global network of specialised cybercrime subgroups that collaborate for financial gain.

Keepnet Callback Phishing Simulator

As telephone and SMS threats rapidly evolve, our Callback Phishing Simulator leverages AI to stage hyper-realistic simulation campaigns that build employee resilience. Key features include:

• AI-Powered Voice Technologies: Utilise text-to-speech or upload custom voice recordings to capture the psychology of real callback phishing attempts.
• Extensive Threat Library: Access over 250+ up-to-date callback phishing templates in 30+ languages modelled on current telephone and SMS-based cyberattack trends.
• Local Phone Numbers: Increase realism by displaying organisation-specific or employee personal phone numbers that threat actors are likely to spoof.
• Customizability: Tailor threat scenarios with familiar company details to accurately evaluate workforce readiness levels against context-relevant attacks.
• Varied Complexity: Expose employees to callback phishing scenarios ranging from simple to highly sophisticated to get security reflexes battle-tested and ready.
• Always Current: Regular template updates ensure your training regiments stay aligned with the latest and most prevalent callback phishing tactics in the wild.

With hyper-realistic simulation powered by AI, the Callback Phishing Simulator takes workforce cybersecurity to the next level. Request a demo now to experience enhanced resilience.