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Cyber crooks using internet calling for ID theft

Following spirited campaigns from banking institutions to counter phishing and ID theft by warning consumers against divulging information to unsolicited emails, cyber crooks are changing tack, reports say.

Many people receive rogue emails purporting to be from their banking institutions but awareness is stopping many from responding, saving them from having their accounts cleaned out.

However, cyber crooks are now using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) against US customers by making calls while tricking local telephone exchanges to think the number is local.

According to montgomeryadvertiser.com, the calls look legitimate because caller ID shows a local call and the crooks go through the same pitch as they would online to make people divulge their personal information.

The likely outcome would be ID theft, if one is tricked to respond to the crooks' ruse and consumers are advised to hang up or ask for a call-back number just in case.

According to online security firm Garlik's cybercrime report, phishing, ID theft and other online criminal activities contributed to the number of cyber crimes in the UK increasing last year.

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