Have you ever received a call that seemed routine at first, but something about it didn’t sit right? If so, you’ve likely been the target of “vishing”, one of the fastest-growing scam methods today. Instead of relying on emails or SMS (smishing), vishing scams use phone calls to pressure you into giving up sensitive information or making a payment.
These scams can be harder to recognize in the moment, which is what makes them so effective. That’s why it’s important to educate yourself on how vishing works and how to recognize the warning signs of an attack.
What Is a Vishing Attack?
Vishing is a specific type of phishing scam in which an attacker calls you and attempts to trick you into giving up personal or financial information. Instead of sending suspicious links over SMS or email, they call directly. These attacks often use social engineering, creating a sense of urgency and fear to get you to act before you have time to properly think things through.
Vishing has become a major threat in the last few years. And with the rise of AI, these attacks have become more and more convincing.
A typical vishing attempt follows a predictable pattern. For example, a caller claiming to be from your bank explains there has been a problem with your account and warns you of “suspicious activity”. They’ll urge you to verify your identity on the spot, hoping you’ll hand over login details or a verification code.
What Vishing Scammers Are Trying to Get
To recognize a vishing call early, it helps to know what the caller is actually after. These scams almost always have a clear goal, and the patterns are easy to spot once you’re familiar with them.
- Access to Your Accounts: Vishing attackers may directly ask for your credit card number, online banking logins, or two-factor authentication codes.
- Sensitive Personal Information: If you give your Social Security number, date of birth, or home address to a scammer, it can allow them to commit identity theft or open accounts in your name.
- Remote Access to Your Device: Tech-support impostors aim to persuade victims to install remote-access tools so they can view files, passwords, or payment apps on your device.
- Immediate Payments: The most common thing vishing scammers are after is money. Scammers will generally ask for payments through unusual methods such as cryptocurrency, gift cards, and wire transfers.
Techniques Scammers Use in Vishing
Most email or SMS phishing attacks start with a link that either directs you to a spoofed website or installs malware in the background. Vishing works differently. Instead of relying on technology, many scammers lean almost entirely on social engineering. However, deepfakes and other advanced tactics have made vishing more effective and difficult to spot.
AI-Driven Attacks
In the past few years, AI has touched nearly every industry, and unfortunately, scammers have been quick to adopt it as well. Modern vishing calls no longer rely on clumsy scripts or obvious red flags. AI tools help attackers sound polished and alarmingly convincing.
Europol’s 2024 internet crime report found that AI voice cloning is increasingly used in vishing scams, making them more difficult to detect.
Let’s take a look at some of the main ways scammers use AI for vishing attempts:
- Voice Cloning: Using AI, scammers can clone the voice of a real person, such as a manager or even a family member, using just a few seconds of audio.
- Dynamic Call Scripts: Instead of sticking to a rigid, pre-written script, AI can generate natural responses in real time. This allows scammers to adapt to your questions and keep the conversation moving.
- Personalized Pre-Texts: Attackers can now quickly scan breached data, public profiles, or LinkedIn information using AI tools to make vishing attempts sound more personal.
- Automated Target Selection: AI tools can analyze leaked data or phone lists to identify people who are more likely to respond. This might include job seekers, new homeowners, or senior citizens.
- Hyper-realistic Robocalls: Instead of traditional robotic voices, scammers now use AI voices that sound human and even mimic subtle speech patterns like hesitation and tone shifts.
Caller ID Spoofing (VoIP)
Caller ID spoofing is a tactic scammers use to make vishing calls feel much more believable. Scammers manipulate the number that appears on your screen so it looks like it’s coming from a trusted bank, government agency, or your local area code. When the number seems familiar, most people are far more likely to pick up.
For example, you might receive a call that appears to be from your local area. Behind the scenes, the scammer is likely not even in the same country as you, let alone in the same area code. Instead, they are spoofing the number using VoIP software.
If you answer, they’ll likely mark your phone number as active, and you’ll start receiving a barrage of scam calls that appear to be from your local area.
Pre-Recorded Robocall
Scammers love pre-recorded robocalls because they are inexpensive and let them hit thousands of phones at once. Instead of speaking to you directly, they play an automated message designed to push you into acting quickly.
These are common with government and banking impersonation scams.
A typical example might sound like:
“This is the IRS. Your tax return has been flagged. Press 1 to speak with an agent.”
Dumpster Diving
Dumpster diving isn’t a fancy term for some high-tech scam tactic; it’s exactly what it sounds like. Scammers search through discarded mail, packaging, and documents to piece together personal details they can use in a vishing attack.
It may seem pretty low-tech compared to AI voices or spoofed caller IDs, but it’s still effective because most people throw away sensitive information without realizing the risk.
Documents tossed in the trash remain one of the easiest ways for criminals to obtain names, addresses, account numbers, and other details they can weaponize in fraud.
Wardialing
While definitely one of the older techniques in the scam playbook, wardialing is still widely used in vishing because of how efficient it is. Instead of targeting specific people, scammers use software that rapidly dials thousands of phone numbers in sequence. This is often every possible combination within an area code. If your number happens to fall in that range, you get a call.
It’s essentially a “numbers game”: the goal is to find working lines they can feed into larger vishing campaigns.
If your phone rings briefly and the caller hangs up before you can answer, it may have been part of a mass scan where the system is simply testing which numbers are active.
Common Types of Vishing Scams
Vishing calls would be much easier to spot if scammers all used the same script. Unfortunately, that’s far from reality. There are countless variations of vishing scams, each designed to sound familiar enough to gain your trust. And with artificial intelligence making impersonation faster and more convincing, the number of ways scammers can approach you is growing quickly.
Let’s take a look at a few of the most common types of vishing calls:
Government or Agency Impersonation
Vishing attacks often pose as the IRS, Social Security Administration, or local law enforcement. These agencies have a high level of credibility. So, when a caller sounds “official” or mentions a case number, victims are far less likely to question whether the call is legitimate.
These callers will insist you must “verify” information or make an immediate payment.
A common example is a fake IRS agent warning that your taxes are overdue and that you’ll face legal action unless you pay right away. The IRS clearly states that they never call to demand immediate payment or threaten arrest.
Financial Institution Vishing
Bank impersonation calls are particularly convincing because scammers follow the structure of a real fraud-alert call. They open by sounding helpful, mention a “problem” with your account, and then naturally shift to collecting sensitive information.
For instance, you might hear: “We flagged a transaction from another state. I just need to verify your account.” They’ll typically go through a series of “security” questions and then ask you to confirm a 2-factor authentication code.
However, once you provide a one-time passcode, they can take over your account in real time. Banking impersonation scams can lead to significant financial damage. Between January and November of 2025, the FBI received more than 5,100 account takeover complaints and more than a quarter of a billion dollars in losses
Fake Tech Support Calls
One of the easiest ways for scammers to get you to let your guard down is to sound like they’re there to “fix” something. Instead of threatening you with legal trouble, the caller frames the situation as a technical problem they’ve already identified. This could be a supposed “virus”, a hacked Wi-Fi network, or strange activity on your computer.
They’ll walk you through steps that feel routine. This might involve tweaking security settings or downloading software. In reality, those steps give them remote access to your device or expose sensitive files. Some scammers even send victims to spoofed websites to make the scheme appear even more legitimate.
Employment Opportunity Calls
If you’ve ever been job hunting, you know how quickly your inbox and phone can fill up. Scammers take full advantage of that moment. They’ll pose as a recruiter from a well-known company, sometimes even spoofing the caller ID of a real organization you’ve applied to.
These calls will start with something to excite you, like, “We’d love to move you to the next step.” They’ll then quickly shift to requesting personal details. The scammer may ask you to verify your identity or your account details to set up a direct deposit. Once they have your information, it can be used for identity theft or to drain your accounts.
This is a widespread scam that has become increasingly common. According to the FTC, job-scam reports tripled between 2020 and 2023, with more than $220 million in reported losses in the first half of 2024 alone!
How to Identify Vishing Calls
Vishing calls have gotten so advanced that many people feel like they’re “flying blind” when the phone rings. The good news is that most of these calls still leave subtle clues. If you know what to watch for, you can spot a vishing attempt without putting yourself at risk.
- Unexpected call from an unknown number: If you aren’t expecting a call and the number isn’t familiar, treat it with caution, even if it appears to share your area code. Vishing calls often come out of the blue and try to catch you off guard.
- You feel pressured to act immediately: If the caller starts with threats, deadlines, or phrases like “don’t hang up,” it’s a clear sign they’re trying to keep you from verifying anything. Legitimate organizations won’t rush you or demand instant decisions over the phone.
- The caller’s voice seems off: AI-generated voices are getting impressively realistic, but they are far from perfect. They often have slight delays, unusual pacing, or an overly “smooth” tone that feels unnatural. If something about how the person sounds seems inconsistent or scripted, trust your instincts.
- They discourage you from calling the company back: It’s a red flag if a caller insists you stay on the line or tries to prevent you from calling the official number of the company. This is because scammers know that once you hang up and call the real organization, you’ll discover the fraud.
- Caller requests sensitive or personal information: This is a telltale sign of a scam, especially if the scammer asks for details like two-factor authentication codes, your full credit card information, or your social security number.
Of course, spotting these clues is much easier when you have a tool that flags suspicious calls ahead of time.
Lifeguard takes a lot of the guesswork out of spotting these scam calls. It automatically flags high-risk numbers, warns you when a caller’s identity doesn’t match the number they’re using, and detects signs of vishing before you pick up.
How to Block Vishing Calls
You can block most vishing attempts using the tools already built into your phone. Both iPhone and Android let you silence unknown callers, filter suspected spam, and block any number that reaches you.
For additional protection, you can utilize your phone carrier’s spam-blocking features or reputable third-party apps.
For a full walkthrough, check out our guide on how to stop scam calls.
What to Do If You Are Being Targeted
Picked up a suspicious call and realized that something feels off? Here’s what you should do next to shut it down safely:
Hang Up Right Away
The safest move is to end the call the moment it feels suspicious. Scammers are trained to keep you talking because the longer you stay on the line, the easier it becomes for them to build trust and extract information. You don’t owe the caller an explanation. If something feels off, simply hang up. If the call was legitimate, the real organization will contact you again through proper channels.
Block the Caller On Your Phone
After hanging up, block the number directly from your device. While many scammers rotate numbers frequently, blocking prevents repeat attempts from the same source and signals to your carrier that the number is suspicious.
Report the Call to the Right Agency
It’s important to report the vishing attempt to help regulators track scam patterns and shut down large-scale operations. Use ReportFraud.ftc.gov for general scam reports or the FCC Consumer Complaint Center for unwanted telemarketing calls spoofing. It takes less than a minute and contributes to the broader effort to stop these campaigns at the source.
Stay Ahead of Vishing Scams
Vishing works because it hits you in real time. If a caller catches you off guard and sounds legitimate for just long enough, they might be able to convince you to transfer funds or provide sensitive information.
Lifeguard helps you stay ahead of vishing by alerting you to suspicious calls instantly and removing your data from the sources that fuel these scams.