Have you ever noticed any random ring on your phone from your bank informing you that your account has been suspended? Check your phone right now. You’re sure to see at least a couple of unsolicited messages in your inbox calling for one of two actions – click the link or call the ‘legit’ number provided.
Attracting cell phone users to give away any form of personal information via their phones is called ‘Smishing’ – a new age cyber crime. Being one of the most bothersome forms of threats out there, smishing is actually quite effective in retrieving info from unassuming users.
Smishing is a word derived from ‘SMS phishing’ and is an immediate action seeking tool used by attackers to retrieve personal data. If you look up their sleeve, you’ll find two trump cards that they regularly employ for their malicious efforts – user’s fear, greed and a sense of urgency.
The growth of smishing came about with our reliance on mobile phones to pay all our bills and shop all our favorite products online.
Although attackers are getting smarter by the day, you can still avert compromising your personal/financial data by just making sure you don’t respond to any message that you didn’t give any prior consent.
Here are some examples of common smishing tactics:
You’ll notice that none of these actions tell you much about the legitimacy of the sender. They might even mention the name of the bank or the company they represent, but you’ll never find any signals to double check the sender’s intentions.
Here’s something like ‘an apple a day’ idiom – make sure you do these steps to keep cyber attackers away.
Since these cyber crooks only need you to click on these once or twice to get you hooked on their schemes, it is very important that you follow these steps every time.
By now, you may have realized how easy it is to trick users into giving up their credit card details. The only way to fight against such fraudsters is to be aware of the ways in which they could attack. Also, it is very important that every action you take on your phone is because you understand who you are talking to and you trust the sender.
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