How To Avert Scam SMS
- Understanding SMS Scam
- Common Types Of SMS Scam
- How People Become Vulnerable
- How To Successfully Avoid SMS Scam
- Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding SMS Scam
It’s not new, yet people still fall for it every day.
Why?
Is it ignorance? Carelessness? Being overwhelmed? Simple mistakes?
More importantly, what makes innocent people fall for SMS scams?
That’s what I’m covering in this issue of Safety Nets: Spot & Stop Fraud, Scams, & Manipulation.
What Is SMS Scam?
First things first: what exactly is an SMS?
SMS is an acronym for "Short Message Service".
It is a text messaging service for sending short messages and typically has limitation of up to 160 characters.
It refers to communications taking place across different mobile devices, that are being exchanged from contact-to-contact.
Specifically, such messaging is usually text-based, short, and features delivery reports, which are designed to confirm whether they have been successfully delivered or not.
SMS is used for several purposes, such as:
1. Personal Communication between friends, family, or colleagues, such as :
- greetings
- reminders
- felicitations.
2. Business communication for transactional purposes, like sending :
- notifications,
- alerts
- promotional messages
3. Two-factor authentication Protocol
as a second factor in authentication processes, to send verification codes to users or account-holders.
What Does "SMS Scam" mean?
Now that we understand the base, let's now hit the nail of SMS scam on its complex, nuanced, and treacherous Medusa head.
SMS Scam simply refers to fake and fraudulent SMS messages.
They are often designed to disguise their real places of origin or sources.
For example, they pretend to cone from trusted sources, like government agencies or offices or businesses you deal with, or your family members or close friends.
The aim is always to catch you napping and squeeze something valuable out of you.
That's why they regularly sing notes of urgency, to compel you to act quickly and without rational thinking.
Oftentimes, they contain links they tell you to click, which takes you to a scam website.
They can steal any personal information which you happen to enter on that site, and use it to steal your money or commit fraud in your name.
Have you received such messages before, or even lately?
They are mostly sent to your phone to deceive or trick you into sharing your personal information, money, or to unknowingly grant access to your accounts.
Common Types of SMS Scam
1. Bank Fraud Scams:
These do fly around a lot.
You could be sitting in front of your tv set enjoying a nice movie and hear the bleep or chime of an incoming sms,
You pick it up.
Like a slap in the face, a (fake) message informs you that you are:
- owing government some taxes or fines
- have outstanding financial obligations yet to be completed at your bank or financial institution
- that your account will be frozen unless you make some payments.
2. Prize or Lottery Scams:
It could instead be informing and congratulating you for winning a prize (which you never contested for). It tells you all you need to do to redeem your win is to pay a "small" fee.
3. Phishing Links:
As I earlier mentioned, the SMS may contain links which look real but actually land you on fake websites where your personal information can be extracted or stolen.
4. Fake Job Offers:
Yeah, you see a lot of that.
If you are a fresh graduate looking for white-collar job, you might be an easy target for job offer SMS scams.
Their stock-in-trade includes
- promises of jobs which requires upfront payments or personal information to automatically become yours.
5. Tech Support Scams:
These are messages which pretend to emanate from tech companies.
They may warn you that your device has been infected or has some security issues, and that you need to install their app to resolve it.
It's actually a malware they want to use to grant themselves remote access to your device - and through that siphon your personal and financial data to defraud or impersonate you.
6. Romance Scams:
Have you also at any time received romantic messages from somebody claiming to be accepting your request for friendship?
They may direct you to visit their curated links, ask for financial assistance or your personal details ostensibly to enable them familiarize with you.
How You Can Become Vulnerable to SMS Scams
1. Sharing Personal Data:
This is the most common lapse by which people inadvertently grant access to scammers.
It happens anytime you give out your personal details when asked by persons who by right, association, or legitimacy have no need to know.
2. Clicking On Suspicious Links:
Whenever you obey SMS directive from an unknown person or source and click on any uncertain or suspicious links, you may land on a fake or compromised website giving away confidential information about yourself.
3. Attending To SMS With Unknown Numbers:
You can fall into a trap and give away something personal by responding to messages from strangers.
4. Ignoring Warning Signs:
Remember, if you fall to exercise caution, you may overlook or miss the signs warning you that a message may be fake.
That could be your fifth sense, intuition or instinct actively at work screaming notes of "beware", which unfortunately we sometimes ignore.
5. Public Wi-Fi:
It's a fact that public Wi-Fi is an unsafe and unsecure network for confidential transactions or messaging.
In spite of this, most people don't think twice before conducting their personal business and confidential communications (messaging) on it.
As such they may inadvertently open windows for fraudsters to scoop snippets or bits of their personal information.
6. Not Keeping Software Updated:
If your phone or device's security architecture is not up-to-date, chances are that scammers will find it very easy to hack into their memory.
7. Being Too Trusting
Some of us can be unnecessarily trusting of messages we have not verified.
By believing and responding to them without checking to know whether they are authentic or not, we may make ourselves vulnerable to SMS scams.
8. Sharing Verification Codes:
Careless handling of codes sent to you via SMS can also put you at risk.
It can give scammers access to your private information.
9. Failure To Report Scams:
If you fail to report scam attempts or attacks to your service provider or relevant anti-fraud authorities, it only encourages crime to continue.
Trust me, you will also remain an attractive target for scammers.
10. Paying Money To An Unknown:
Emotional triggers can sometimes cause somebody to react hastily, without thinking of the consequences.
Imagine going into a panic over threats of account closure and making payment to an unknown and unverified source.
It happens.
Financial & Security Implications of SMS Scam
1. Loss of Money:
Through dubious SMS, scammers can cajole you into paying or transferring funds to them.
2. Identity Theft:
Your confidential and personal information details stand the risk of being stolen and could be used to open duplicate accounts to commit fraud.
3. Access to Bank Accounts:
When you act on unverified messages, scammers may successfully extract enough personal data or information to log into your banking app.
Even more serious, this can enable them to gain access to other accounts that are linked to your phone or email and defraud your contacts.
4. Breach Of Privacy:
Remember the saying that "Loose lips sink ships" ? No offense meant, but if you indulge in careless talk, you might unknowingly release sensitive personal information to unauthorized people and this can have serious consequences.
For example, scammers may endanger you by selling your personal details to their colleagues.
5. Legal Problems:
Similarly, your leaked personal information can be used for criminal purposes and cause you to be arrested, prosecuted, and suffer for crimes you didn't commit.
6. Emotional Disturbance:
It's pointless to remind anyone that getting scammed is awful.
Beyond the money, you’re saddled with anxiety, stress, and a hard time trusting anyone.
7. Damage To Integrity
How to Successfully Avoid SMS Scam
1. No Trusting
2. No Clicking
3. No Sharing
Protect your passwords, PINs, and bank details, etc, and don't give them away via SMS.
4. Verify
Call the company or institution they claim to represent by directly using their official contact info or customer line.
5. Familiarize Yourself With Device Security Features:
Meticulously explore your phone's SMS and Calls Settings to discover what security features it contains.
Invest time and patience to understand their functions and how to effectively apply them.
6. Check With Your Service or Device Provider:
Communicate officially with your mobile network provider to inquire about their anti-scam solutions and other security options they offer.
7. Apply Anti-malware Solution:
You should not shy away from investing a little to secure your privacy and funds.
It's indeed a wise move to consider installing anti-malware software from reputable and trusted sources in order to add an extra layer of protection.
8. Report Scam Messages:
As a matter of personal safety, you should immediately report suspicious or fake messages or scams to relevant government anticorruption authorities and agencies.
9. Block Unknown Senders:
Furthermore, once you suspect that a particular messaging source or numbers are untrusted or unknown to you, don't hesitate to block them.
10. Precaution Is Better Than Cure:
It's better to err on the side of caution than to jump in and regret later.
If you can't figure out who's sending that message, then ignore it.
Don't respond to it.
11. Seek Knowledge
On a final note, awareness is always a crucial aspect of self-protection.
Therefore you should educate yourself and stay informed about common scams tactics.
This will assist you to quickly recognize signs on time.
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