You might have come across the term, “Smishing” which is a fraud used by cybercriminals to strip digital device users of their personal data.  The Smishing scam compromise recipient’s cell phone via SMS. As soon as the user clicks on the text link, the hacker captures the target’s personal data.

The Smishing hackers depend on the victims to click on the links in SMS messages. The victims fall for it as they assume the text messages are coming from a trusted source. As there are a lot of ways Smishing impostor can use the process in a lot of ways that make it confusing for a user to identify a hoax.

Having said that, there are a few tricks which could help you outsmart these Smishing fraudsters.

Also Read : Get Back At Spammers With These Tricks

Smishing: What does it mean?

It is a portmanteau of “SMS” which is commonly known as short message services and most of the people also recognize as “phishing.” Smishing is usually performed by phishing people. The common method is sending fraudulent emails that seek to trick you into accessing suspicious and malicious links and websites which infect your machine.

In other words, you can say is Smishing focus on text messages instead of emails. These text messages pretend that they are from your bank and reporting about unusual activity or about the payment that your account has been charged. When you reply for such messages then you can compromise on the following information:

Credit card number
Debit card number
Social Security Number
Your Zip code
Bank account number along with the routing info

The name of the debit/credit card or bank you use, which come handy for spear phishing scams and other attacks.

There are chances that these Smishing scams are targeted to infect your device with malware or make malicious websites tempting so you click on the links and end up infecting your machines.

Type of Smishing Scams

Malware & Virus Scam

In these scams, you are mostly tricked to click on the links and ads displayed on the screen.  This finds the loophole and infected your device with malware and virus. Some of the times cybercriminals, steal the information stored on your systems such as credentials, debit and credit card information. There are the changed that this malware can be ransomware and demand ransom in the return to provide you with the control of your machine.

Toll Call Scams

When you have been targeted by the Smishing scam, then you get a pop up on your screen which contains a phone number. This message indicates you to call on the provided phone to fix the pop-up issue. Moreover, this number can be a toll-free number, or you be charged up to $ 19 per minutes. You will experience the receiver will put you hold often just to increase the charges and try to sell you one of the plans in return to removing popup on your screen.

Banking Scams

These scams take place by sending the false notification to victims. These notifications pretend to come from banks which show feigned emergency by giving personal information such as your account number and your debit/credit card number.

How to Prevent Smishing Scams From Stealing Your Data

To make sure you won’t become a victim of Smishing scams, you can follow the below tricks to prevent such incidents because precaution is better than cure.
Ignore Clicking on Links and Unknown Messages:

When you receive message and links from unknown sources then there are chances that they are infected or malicious. Clicking on such links make you a victim of scams and others phishing schemes.

Never Share Your Financial Info

Sometimes you get a call which tricks you to share your personal and financial information with them. You need to make sure you don’t share your information if someone pretends to be from your bank. You can disconnect the call or put the call on hold to check the legitimacy of the call from your bank. Moreover, if you get such call you can disconnect the call and call your bank regarding the incident.

Must Read : Tricks To Clean Up Your Infected Device

Avoid Phone Number That Contains “5000”

It is important to look out for suspicious numbers which are totally different from a legitimate phone number such as 5000. Mostly, you received these number through your emails and pop up on your screen which is created to perform stealing of your data.

Smishing Cyber Attack is growing and evolving threat on online security across the globe. So, prevent Smishing scams and threats should be everyone’s priority to ensure security and privacy.

We hope you find this article useful for understanding Smishing and trick to prevent Smishing scams from stealing your data.