Smishing: The Rise of the Text Message Scam
Smishing is a text message (SMS) scam. phishing (p-h-i-s-h-i-n-g). It's a combination of "password" and "fishing," because scammers are "fishing" for your information. We’ve all been trained to spot a fraudulent email, but a new and far more effective threat is on the rise: smishing. A blend of "SMS" (Short Message Service) and "phishing," smishing is a cyberattack that uses deceptive text messages to trick you into revealing sensitive information. Smishing is highly successful because we tend to trust text messages more than emails. Our phones are personal devices, and a text feels like a more direct form of communication. Scammers are taking advantage of this trust, and recent reports show that smishing attacks are now a major cause of data breaches. How Smishing Works: It’s More Than Just a Random Text Unlike a basic scam from a random number, modern smishing attacks are sophisticated and hard to spot. They rely on social engine...
