Well you may have heard of Phishing – scams using fraudulent or fake emails, masquerading as a trustworthy entity to defraud users into giving away sensitive personal information such as passwords or bank details.
Well smishing or SMS phishing is a criminal activity / scam; via a Trojan horse, malware or virus, onto a mobile device. By masquerading as a trustworthy communication via short message service (SMS) or simply put via Text.
The more things go mobile, the more prevalent SMiShing will be, so it’s important to be aware about the receipt of a fake text message. Now before you say “It’s Okay I Have and iPhone”, both Android phones and iPhones, basically ANY Mobile devious can be hacked and it’s happening with alarming frequency.
Scammers rely on your quick reaction to a text message that appears basically identical to an actual message from, say, your bank. One tactic, or tip to look for, of a fake text / message is the use of an immediate response such as,“Urgent!” or “Reply now!” The less you think, and just react to these messages, the better for the scammers. However, even if you give the message a good look-over, it could still fool you.
We will agree that Most of the SMS / text messages that you will get, are going to be totally fine. But it only takes one bad one to compromise your security. With just a little bit of common sense and caution, you can make sure that you don’t become a victim of identity theft. Always Err on the side of caution. If you have doubts about the safety of a text message, don’t even open it.
