By now you have become familiar with the term Phishing, and learned how to spot these attempts that arrive in your email. Despite the scammers getting better at creating phony web sites to try and capture users information, they're still not good enough to work around ISP's blocking their email broadcasts, filters and other forms of defense.
A new form of Phishing has arrived that you should be aware of called Smishing. Rather than delivering the traditional email, scammers are now sending phishing come ons and scams via SMS message to cell phones.
One popular attempt notifies the user that thay are about to be charged for something unless it is canceled. For example: "Thank you for signing up for our online backup service! You will be charged $2 per day unless you cancel your order by clicking here or visiting this-phony-web-site.com." Just like Phishing emails, the site users are directed to is 100% fake and will ask for your credit card number, certain login information and perhaps even try to install something to your machine or manipulate your browser. Smishing messages have also been reported to have asked for users to call a toll free number in order to complete or cancel a financial transaction.
Another scam reported may try to mimic a message alleged to be from your mobile carrier: "Congratulations! You won $300 worth of free talk time minutes today. To claim your prize just type: (insert random numbers here) and send to 2292 three times. (LOAD REWARD) Thank you!"
With the possible exception of your mobile service provider, the chances of any legitimate business contacting you via text message are slim to none. And most mobile service provider's messages will be recognizable. The recommended action to take if you receive any scam messages is of course to laugh and carry on with your day.
New Tech Scam: Smishing
