In these corona times, criminals are increasingly using smishing. In false (fake) SMS messages they offer certain things on behalf of government agencies or banks. They also spread fake news about the corona virus and offer so-called “antibacterial payment cards”. In this article we tell you how to recognize smishing and give tips to prevent phishing via SMS.
Smishing is a form of phishing via SMS. The word ‘phishing’ is derived from ‘fishing’; it concerns criminals who ‘fish’ for your personal data. For example, you will receive an SMS on behalf of a bank. At least, that’s what it looks like. Because by ‘spoofing’ criminals can make you believe you are someone else. The SMS message is not sent by the mentioned company but by a criminal who tries to retrieve your personal data or security codes (such as card number, login or pin code). Spoofing can also take place over the phone. For example, you will receive a phone call from someone who claims to be from the Customer Service department of bank X. Even if you receive a call, never give out personal information and do not transfer money. What you can do: ask questions, be critical and just hang up if you don’t trust it.
You can recognize smishing by going through a number of questions when you receive such a fake SMS message:
It is quite difficult to distinguish a ‘real’ (non-criminal) URL from a fake one. So pay attention:
So let us get some things straight:
Let’s conclude with a positive fact. Despite the smishing attempts, we can state with certainty that SMS messages are above all an effective and safe way to inform customers, patients, employees and others about all kinds of things. From an appointment reminder to a marketing campaign. SMS messages have proven their usefulness for a long time. In healthcare alone , millions of euros are saved annually by using SMS service as an appointment reminder. At Spryng we know everything about that. And we also know how you can use SMS in a fast and secure way for your company or industry. With one simple (and secure!) SMS API . Want to know more? Call us at 020-7703005.