Will Your Organization Make the Fraud 'Naughty or Nice' List?

You receive a call from a number you don’t recognize.

This tactic is “vishing.” If you don’t recognize a number in caller ID, don’t answer. If you answer and the caller asks about your account, but you are unsure of the caller’s identity, don’t disclose personal information. Hang up and contact your financial institution immediately via an established phone number.

You receive an “urgent” vendor request for payment with a link to enter details, but the email address doesn’t match the one on file.

Don’t click on the link, which may contain malware. Call the vendor to confirm they sent the    request. If they didn’t, send the email to your IT as a “phishing attempt,” if applicable.

A representative from your financial institution calls to ask about “suspicious” charges on your account. He then asks you to provide your account login for further investigation.

Hang up. This is also vishing. Your financial institution will never call, email or text you to ask for   personal information. Use an established phone number to contact your financial institution directly to report the incident.

The accounts payable director for your organization is at a conference. You receive an urgent voice mail in which she asks you to wire $1k to cover additional costs for the company’s exhibit at the conference.  

This could be a deepfake. Don’t wire the money and don’t call the number provided in the voice mail. Instead, verify the request through an established contact method and follow your company's payments and security procedures.

You receive a personal email, with a link, to receive a discount on a product you’ve been browsing on their site.

This is also phishing. Don’t click the link. To ensure you’re not engaging with a fake website, type the company’s known address into the browser yourself. Look for a site seal that verifies its authenticity. Check the site’s security information for TSL/SSL certificates. The organization validation (OV) and extended validation (EV) certificates ensure the business is registered and/or has the highest level of authentication.