Authorities in the state of Delaware, US, have received multiple reports of fraudulent phone calls allegedly related to the State Police phone number. According to information security experts, the inhabitants receive calls from alleged police officers requesting some personal data, in a variant of the attack known as ‘spoofing’.
Phone spoofing is a form of identity fraud employed by a caller ID forger, in this case, attackers pose as state police agents to trick victims into forcing them to hand over useful confidential information to some other fraudulent activities or to get money transfers.
The recipient is convinced that a family member
needs a money transfer, because they have suffered an injury, have been
involved in traffic accidents, or other possible scenarios. The perpetrators try
to raise the most emotional situation possible, even resort to crying to make
the victim of the scam fall into their game. According to information security
experts, in the case of Delaware, fraudsters pose as cops or detectives,
demanding victims make payments for alleged arrears, or even threaten to
undertake a legal process in case not to receive payment.
“We want to remind citizens that the
Police Department does not request the payment of fines, taxes or bonds through
phone calls. These payments are managed by the respective justice systems;
please ignore these fraudulent calls,” says a statement from the Delaware
Police.
Although it seems like a rudimentary fraud
technique, spoofing is still practiced on a large scale, and its execution is
little complex, so it can become a profitable activity for groups of threat
actors. As if that wasn’t enough, there are multiple services available on the
market to change a number displayed on the caller ID, so these malicious
campaigns are available to anyone.
Information security experts from the
International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS) bring a list of advices to
avoid becoming victims of phone spoofing:
- Be
very careful with calls from unidentified individuals requesting personal
information - Do
not answer calls from unknown numbers - Avoid
answering questions posed by attackers - If
you receive a call from an alleged representative of a public company or
institution, hang up the phone and report it to legitimate organizations
In the case of mobile security, there are also
tools to block potentially malicious phone numbers, which can help you
consolidate a good security environment in your phone calls.
