In the last two weeks or so users in Ireland have been subject to vishing attacks on a large scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The modus operandi is random phone calls from unknown mobiles, predominantly 087 numbers that appear to belong to Vodafone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s unclear if these are real or spoofed – but from research that I carried out into the numbers confirmed to be part of this scam, none of them belong to any identifiable real persons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Multiple users reported being targeted over and over, which suggests that the scammers don’t just pick random numbers to call – they actually verify that the victim’s number is valid and is in active use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This “due diligence” is probably done using breach data dumps like the Facebook one, which I previously discussed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vishing callers impersonate Irish government organisations, from the Department of Social Protection to An Garda Siochana. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The content of the message will vary, but usually it will employ some degree of urgency (“your PPS number has been invalidated” or “there is an outstanding warrant in your name”, etc.).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In some cases, an unanswered call will result in an automated voicemail message being left – like the one below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n