Many businesses nowadays are well-armed against email-based phishing scams, which is why scammers have moved over to VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) scams. Through “vishing scams,” hackers can pretend to be bank representatives and convince your employees to provide confidential financial details via a seemingly innocuous VoIP call. Take a look at why vishing is on the rise to understand how to keep your business from falling victim.

VoIP makes it easy to create fake numbers

One of the main reasons vishing scams are increasing in frequency is the ease by which cybercriminals can hide their tracks and escape with minimal risk of detection.

Using a fake number, scammers can contact your employees, pretend to be a representative of a bank or government agency, ask for sensitive information — such as salary information, account numbers, and company intellectual property — and get away with it. Scammers can also manipulate local numbers to emulate multinational banks, which they will then use for various VoIP scams.

VoIP is easy to set up and difficult to track

It isn’t very difficult to configure a VoIP system, and this makes fraudulent phone calls or messages an easy thing to accomplish. Scammers only need to know the basics of a VoIP setup.

VoIP hardware such as IP-PBXs, IP phones, and routers are also inexpensive and quite easy to access. Hackers can conveniently connect these equipment to PCs for the purposes of recording phone calls and stealing information from conversations.

Also, fake numbers are difficult to track because they can be ditched at any time. And with advanced voice-changing software widely available nowadays, a vishing scam is much easier to pull off.

Caller ID can be tampered with

In some vishing scams, attackers don’t even have to destroy a number to cover their tracks. Instead, they can trick users into thinking that they’re talking to a legitimate Microsoft technical support staff, a PayPal representative, or a fraud investigator, simply by tampering with the caller ID.

VoIP scamming is cost-efficient

Traditional phones are still used for phishing scams, but they don’t compare to the efficiency VoIP affords, which allows attackers to target victims all over the globe at a fraction of the cost. Cybercriminals resort to VoIP scamming because the price per call is much lower. Vishing scammers are sneaky and resourceful, and they will exhaust all possible means to attack your systems for profit — and that includes your VoIP channels.

Protecting yourself is simple

To protect against VoIP-based scams, set stringent policies on information-sharing and impose strict security processes for all business communications. Informed and aware employees are key to making sure that scammers are held at bay. Protect your company against all types of scams by getting in touch with our experts today.

The post Phishing through VoIP: How scammers do it appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

AI-driven applications and cloud-based services have brought significant enhancements to many organizations. As time goes by, these technologies will become a necessity, especially when it comes to VoIP telephony, and here's why.

Contact center operations
Highly automated VoIP technology enables businesses to manage their call centers easily and reduce the need for human intervention

For example, AI-integrated VoIP systems can determine a caller’s personality, mood, and queries so calls are routed to the agent best equipped to handle them. This makes call center operations more seamless and cost-efficient because this reduces the need for a help desk operator to answer calls just to redirect them.

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems
An IVR system is designed to automatically respond to customer queries, which is extremely helpful for high call volume.

AI enhances this feature by working in the background as AI assistants gathering all relevant customer data such as personal information and recent transactions to resolve a query. For more nuanced queries, the AI “worker” sends this information to the business representative, who will be much better able to serve the customer..

Conferencing capabilities
Web conferencing has improved over the years with internet speeds and telecom technology constantly developing. AI advances it even further with real-time language translation and speech recognition technology, which greatly benefits businesses with multiple geographic locations and whose stakeholders come from diverse backgrounds.

AI-enabled web conferencing can even provide intelligent prompts and relevant data to guide your conversations and ensure a fruitful meeting.

Chatbot functions
Chatbots are useful programs that receive instructions via textual or auditory means to perform automated tasks.

Like IVR systems, bots are used by businesses to automate customer interactions. AI-powered chatbots go beyond regular bot duties by performing more complex tasks like setting up meetings, inviting attendees, managing schedules, and much more.

With AI-powered systems promising improvements in contact center operations, customers’ IVR experiences, web conferencing, and scheduling, businesses are understandably eager to adopt them. There’s so much more that VoIP systems can do for your business, and we’ve got the expertise to handle all your VoIP-related concerns. Just call us today.

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Our craving for data seems to increase every year, fueling the constant advancements in wireless technology. The latest is 5G, an abbreviation for the fifth-generation wireless systems, and it is set to transform VoIP for the better. Here are three ways it will do that.

Improved Video Conferencing

The major factor holding web and video conferencing back is how fast current networks can transmit data. Fortunately, innovations like Web Real-Time-Communications (WebRTC) and 5G networks will enhance VoIP for businesses. Providing open and stable streaming as well as sufficient transfer speeds will soon allow businesses to accommodate higher-quality, even 4K and 8K resolution, videos.

Virtual and augmented reality

With 5G network speeds, virtual and augmented reality will become more common for SMBs. 5G will blow past 4G’s Gbps (gigabits per second) limit, which is currently holding back the adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.

VR and AR need to process significantly more data because of the visuals they must process as users move, and this puts an enormous strain on mobile networks. 5G is also set to ensure a better user experience by facilitating smoother connections and preventing network delays from affecting your bottom line.

Mobile VoIP

VoIP calls rely heavily on sufficient download and upload speeds. For example, when mobile VoIP users on 4G networks are limited to 12Mbps upload and 2Mbps download speeds, they experience unstable and poor call connectivity and clarity. These limitations could also lead to something called packet loss, which happens when one or more “packets” of data traveling across a computer network fail to reach their destination, typically caused by network congestion.

When your business decides to adopt the up-and-coming 5G network, you can expect to see significant VoIP improvements. Ensure the success of your SMB with increased network speeds, better call quality and conversations with consistent connectivity. If you’re looking to set up a VoIP system for your business, call or email us today!

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