Telecom DoS Hides Cyber Crime
The recent spike in unsolicited and mysterious telephone calls may be part of a new scheme to use telecommunications distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to distract individuals from ongoing cyber crime, the FBI warned recently.
According to the FBI, cyber criminals are using telephone calls to mobile and land-lines to distract victims from the attempts by the criminals to empty their bank and trading accounts. The attacks, known as telephony denial-of–service (TDOS), have surged in recent weeks, according to telecom companies working with the FBI.
Using automated systems, cyber crooks place calls to prospective victims, and while the victim is distracted by the call, the criminals transfer funds from the victim’s bank or trading accounts. As a result, financial institutions that detect the fraud are unable to get in touch with the victim until it is too late.
“Following that first incident in November 2009, we’ve recently seen an increase in this activity targeting our customers across the country,” said Adam Panagia, Associate Director of Global Fraud Management for AT&T.
In order to protect yourself, the FBI suggests the placing of fraud alerts on accounts that may have been targeted by fraud. Also, They suggest employing good cyber hygiene to mitigate the possibility that crooks can access user passwords.
“Although unsolicited telephone calls are not always representative of fraud, the FBI believes it is important to advise the public of this scheme,” said Michael B. Ward, Special Agent In Charge of the FBI’s Newark division. “Consumers should continue to emphasize strong security procedures for all financial accounts, including placing fraud alerts on all of their financial accounts and with the major credit bureaus if they believe they may have been targeted by a TDOS attack or other form of fraud.”
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