Smishing – How to Recognize Dangerous Text Messages
19th May 2022
The word “smishing” is derived from a combination of “SMS” and “phishing”. “Phishing” describes the phenomenon of being deceived into giving sensitive information to a disguised cybercriminal and “SMS” indicates that the deception is carried out via text messaging. Smishing is therefore essentially a newer breed of the infamous spam emails, however, due to the perceived intimacy of a personal text message, SMS scams have a higher chance of going unnoticed.
To further take advantage of your confidence in text message safety, attackers tend to assume the identity of well-known companies people are used to receiving legitimate messages from, such as DHL, Netflix, or Apple. Smishing text messages usually depict a situation that due to their urgency, are known to grab the victim’s attention, such as a package delivery notification, a purchase confirmation, or a credit card suspension notice. The ultimate “goal” of smishing is to trick unsuspecting people into giving away their personal or financial information. In many cases, simply clicking the provided link can initiate a download process of viruses or malware, which the cybercriminal can use to access all data and information stored on your phone.
I have received numerous e-mails and text messages from people I know to be dead, as well as from companies and banks with whom I have never done business.