Phishing scams are getting more complicated. Fraudsters are using new strategies to steal your personal information.
Smishing is a blend of SMS and phishing. You might get a worrying text message: your bank account is temporarily locked! Please reply with your username and password to release your hold. But on the other end of the message? A texter trying to steal your personal information.
And Attorney General Bill Schuette (shoot-EE) says smartphone users are three times more likely to fall for these messages than computer users.
Lauren Houck is with the attorney general’s office. She said the texts are often easy to spot.
“A text that looks like it’s coming from your bank about a problem with your account, sometimes it’ll come in a form of “do you have student loans? We can help pay those back!”, another one is “a real Rolex! 90% off, click here.”
The best way to react to an attempted fraud, Houck said, is to delete the message and block its sender.