Along with all the known online scams — including the Nigerian Prince and phishing efforts —comes the latest threat to the security of your personal information: smishing.
Smishing is based on the same principles as phishing, which more people have probably heard of, Josh Planos, vice president of Communications and Public Relations for the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Nebraska, South Dakota, Kansas plains and southwest Iowa, told the Press & Dakotan.
However, instead of a fraudulent email attempting to make someone divulge personal information, the intended smishing victim is contacted via text or SMS message, he said.
“In some cases, scammers will pose as the CEO of (the company) where you work, and in others, Amazon or USPS with tracking information on a delivery that you might not recall, or that might not exist in the first place,” Planos said. “The whole intent is for you to click on something to take you to a place where you’re divulging that personal information, that payment information, and having an account compromised.”
A scammer can do a lot of damage with your personal and payment information on hand, he noted.
There are also more sophisticated levels of the smishing scam that are more of an attack.
“We’ve heard of some folks clicking on the link, and that starts a malware download in an attachment,” Planos…
