Beware of ‘vishing’ scams

Adjust your Skype account settings to avoid voice phishing on your PC

If you communicate with your near and dear ones settled in different parts of the world with Skype, then you need be careful. You may be a target of a so called vishing attack, also known as voice phishing. This new type of attack uses voice messages to convince users to buy malicious software and subsequently rob them of their money.

Just imagine that you are having a conversation with a friend of yours via Skype. While on chat, you’ll receive an automated voice message stating that your PC has been checked and viruses have been detected. The message lures you by providing a link to fix the virus issues. What will you do in such a case? Most obviously, you will unsuspectingly go to that link to resolve the issue and here’s from where the problem starts.

These kinds of calls are fake and are monitored by cyber criminals. Their aim is to lure the users to download malicious software on their PC, which they disguise as a security update. These software ask for personal information by the use of which, the cyber criminals can rob you of your riches.

In fact, very recently Melbourne, Victoria-based AVG (AU/NZ) Pty. Ltd., the distributor of the award-winning AVG Anti-Virus and AVG Internet Security software in Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, issued a warning to Skype users of the region to be aware of such type of attacks and not to get deceived by them.

As a preventive measure, AVG has also recommended the users to adjust their Skype account settings. To do so, they can follow the procedure given underneath.

• Open Skype and click on the ‘Skype‘ tab to view the drop-down menu
• Click on the ‘Privacy‘ option and the ‘Skype – Options‘ panel should pop-up
• The ‘Privacy settings‘ tab should already be open, but if not, click on it
• Click on the ‘Show advanced options‘ button
• Under ‘Allow calls from…‘ click on the ‘People in my Contact list only’ radio button
• Under ‘Automatically receive video and screen shots from…‘ click on the ‘People in my Contact list only‘ or ‘No one’ radio buttons
• Under ‘Show that I have video to…‘ click on the ‘People in my Contact list only’ or ‘No one‘ radio buttons
• Click on the ‘Calls‘ tab
• Click on the ‘Show advanced options‘ button
• Under ‘Allow calls from…‘ click on the ‘People in my Contact list only’ radio button
• Make sure the ‘Answer incoming calls automatically‘ check box is unchecked
• Click on the ‘IM & SMS‘ tab
• Click on the ‘Show advanced options‘ button
• Under ‘Allow IMs from…‘ click on the ‘People in my Contact list only’ radio button
• Click on the ‘Save‘ button at the bottom right of the panel

By doing so, you as a Skype user can only accept calls from people in your contact list and have the option of rejecting the call as well.

Like we do to prevent most scams, all it takes for us is to be more cautious and don’t trust people you don’t know. A little common sense can go a long way in defeating the intentions of cyber criminals.