Vishing is the practice of using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology (telephone service over the internet) to try and trick people into giving out their private personal and financial information for the purpose of financial reward. The term is a combination of "voice" and "phishing". Vishing uses social engineering techniques.

Vishing exploits the public's trust in landline telephone services, which have traditionally terminated in physical locations which are known to the telephone company, and associated with a bill-payer.

However, with the advent of VoIP, telephone services may now terminate in computers, which are far more susceptible to fraudulent attacks than traditional telephony endpoints.

So be aware and be careful about doing business with, or giving out personal information to, a business that calls you out of the blue. They may not be who you think they are - or who they say they are.