How to spot if someone is Smishing!
One sure fire way to ruin your Christmas (or any other time of the year) is to fall victim to a ‘Smishing’ scan. Essentially ‘Smishing’ is the SMS equivalent of ‘Phishing’ - and is particularly prevalent just now. As with most kinds of identity fraud - its aimed at getting enough personal details to be able to pretend to be you online - for personal gain. Heres a quick guide to what you could do to prevent it.
Tell-tale signs of SPAM or Smishing SMS;
Always check SMS messages carefully. Look out for;
Spelling mistakes and poor grammar
Slight spelling differences or symbols in website links used to direct victims to fake sites
Messages that are sent to generic names “Dear customer”
Asking you to call a telephone number you do not recognise
If you do receive a SPAM or Smishing SMS;
Forward the text message, to 7726, ensuring that you do not click on the link embedded in the text. You will then receive a text back requesting the mobile number of where the text was sent from
Information shared to 7726 will be available to all mobile operators, the Information Commissioner's Office and various approved organisations who are involved in criminal investigations, including the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to enable them to identify the senders. Information may also be shared with the organisations who are being targeted by the Smishing attacks to help them protect their customers from fraud
