Do not be a victim of smishing!

Do not be a victim of smishing!

A malicious text message may be heading to a smartphone near you. This message often claims to be from your bank and asks for personal or financial information, such as your account or ATM number. Providing the data is as good as giving your bank account key to thieves.

Smishing is a word made up of "SMS" (short message services, better known as text messages) and "phishing." When cybercriminals "phish," they send fraudulent emails. These links usually contain malicious attachments. Smishing uses text messages instead of email.

How to avoid smishing?

With a text message, hackers can try to achieve many different things. They may try to get personal information from you by pretending to be your bank. They might try to get you to click on the text message to connect with the bank and verify a recent suspicious charge. They may ask you to call the customer service number conveniently included in the text message to discuss a suspicious payment or compromised account with them. Here we share some tips you should consider to avoid smishing:

• Be wary of messages from unknown senders: Especially be attentive to those with spelling mistakes in English or that seems a bad translation from English, as well as promotions or messages from companies or services that you have not used before.

• Never provide the information the message asks for: Never share your data, especially regarding personal or bank details.

• Do not click on the links: Do not even download attachments.

• Block text messages that you consider spam: You will not receive them again if you follow this step.

• Verify the sender: Many times, they impersonate a known contact or company. If you do not feel sure about the message's sender, you can check the company on the Internet or call your references to confirm if they sent the message.

• Avoid storing passwords or banking information unencrypted on your phone: For instance, do not save information in chats with your contacts or notes application. Customize security options with solid passwords and double verification systems.

• Both mobile and electronic banking: Remember that the bank will never ask you by SMS to provide your access codes in full.

What can you do if you suffer a smishing attack?

If you are ever a victim of smishing, the first thing you should do is disconnect your mobile from the Internet and, the next thing, contact your bank to cancel the cards. The second thing is to change the password for online banking and the rest of the services you access from your mobile, but do it from a computer.

Third, you must uninstall any suspicious app that you may have downloaded on your mobile. However, this will not ensure that you get rid of the malware that could have been installed on your mobile completely. It is better to restore the mobile to its factory settings and format it. This procedure will eliminate everything you have been able to install on the mobile, including rogue apps and malware. Remember to back up what you need first, but without entering passwords.

Finally, you must report fraud to the National Police, the Civil Guard, or courts. You must always provide all the relevant evidence, so before formatting the mobile, take the screenshots necessary for it.

We hope that this article helps you to avoid suffering smishing. If you require advice on cybersecurity, contact us. If you are interested in more content, do not forget to visit our blog