Smishing: The Newest Breed Of Online Fraud

It is not a new topic that scammers are trying to steal personal information from innocent people online. So far, this has mostly been done by email or using fake online forms. The latest trend here is now smishing.

What Is Smishing?

Instead of email, everything is done via text messages on the smartphone:

SM S + Ph ishing = Smishing

The scammers’ email tricks are now known to many people to no more prolonged fall, but most of them are more careless on their smartphones. When stressed on their smartphones, they click links from an SMS faster than they would from an email on a computer. In addition, many people believe that smartphones are better protected against such attacks than computers.

What Tricks Do The Scammers Use?

When it comes to smishing, too, fraudsters use a large number of scams. These range from urgent messages from the bank to coupons that can be redeemed quickly to outstanding payments that need to be made urgently. In any case, the aim is to obtain personal information such as the victim’s bank details. For this to work, you are usually asked to follow a link or to perform a download. You should then enter your data there, or malicious software will be installed automatically.

How Can You Protect Yourself Against This?

First, it is essential to say that smishing cannot work if you do not actively respond to the message yourself. So the best protection is to ignore the notice. In any case, caution is advised. In particular, pay attention to the following tips:

• Your bank would not request any personal information via SMS.
• Download apps only from the official app store and not from your internet browser
• Do not reply to messages if you do not know the sender, and do not open any links if you do not know the sender.
• Look at the sender’s cell phone number. Impressive numbers such as B. “5000” often indicate that it is not an actual cell phone number but an email-to-cell phone service since the fraudsters do not want to reveal their existing cell phone number.
• If you do not save any personal information such as bank details on your smartphone, they cannot be stolen either.

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