Your first thought will probably be, “what is smishing?!”. Well, smishing is the same as phishing but via SMS. Many of you will have fallen victim of receiving a fake SMS message trying to gain information from you for hackers to make a quick profit. It has become more and more frequent over the past 12 months, and we want to make people familiar with these types of messages to make sure you dont get caught out!
- Never click a reply link or phone number in a message you’re not sure about.
- No financial institution or merchant will send you a text message asking you to update your account information or confirm your ATM card code. If you get a message that seems to be from your bank or a merchant you do business with, and it asks you to click on something in the message, it’s a fraud. Call your bank or merchant directly if you are in any doubt.
- You should regard urgent security alerts and you-must-act-now coupon redemptions, offers or deals as warning signs of a hacking attempt.
- Refuse to take the bait—simply don’t respond.
If you think you have received a Smishing message and want to help prevent others from receiving them you can do the below:
- Dial 7726 (or for Vodafone subscribers, 87726). This will enable your mobile network provider to take early action to block numbers that are generating spam – including scam texts – on their networks, and report them to the regulators.
- Report spam text messages directly to your mobile phone provider free of charge by forwarding them to 7726 from the device they are received on.
- ‘Which’ also operates an online reporting service for scam texts and phone calls, here: www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/how-to-deal-with-spam-text-messages.
For more information visit – https://www.getsafeonline.org/personal/articles/smishing/
