With Christmas just days away, shoppers are being warned to be wary about receiving fake messages.
Cyber criminals are sending out more scam messages about parcel deliveries this week, according to experts.
Cyber-security firm, Proofpoint, says it is seeing ten times more scam messages this year compared to 2020.
Speaking to BBC News, Vice President Jacinta Tobin said: “We are totally susceptible because we trust and we act quickly.
“And up to only a few years ago texts were used by friends and families.”
She said businesses have only recently moved to texts. “So have scammers and it’s very effective for them.”
Jacinta Tobin says a lot of firms have only recently moved over to sending text messages, and so scammers have followed and it has been ‘very effective for them.
“Smishing” or “SMS phishing” are terms used to describe the act of scammers sending out text messages with links in them. In the hopes that the recipient will click on the link and then download malicious software or give away private data.