The word ‘SMiShing’ may sound like gibberish — we think it’s a weird one — but some of the world’s largest enterprises are losing millions of dollars to these scams every year.
Similar to phishing, the fraudulent act of sending imitation emails claiming to be a corporation in order to obtain personal information from customers, SMiShing uses SMS (short message service) to achieve the same outcome.
Scammers are taking to SMS to prey on people’s trust, (A text message feels more personal than an email nowadays.) panic or sense of urgency. These messages are disguised as a warning from your bank about an unauthorized charge or an alert about an unidentified user accessing one of your accounts. The goal? To lure you into providing account information — such as a login name, password or credit card info — by tapping on a link and entering your information into a look-alike website.
SMiShing is only one tactic used to steal personal information. People must also be wary of the following: