US Government Alerts Americans of Rising SMS Phishing Attacks

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cautioned Americans about an increase in SMS (Short Message Service) phishing attacks aimed at stealing their personal information and money. Such attacks are also known as smishing or robotexts (as the FCC refers to them), and the fraudsters behind them may utilise a variety of enticements to fool you into disclosing sensitive information. 

“The FCC tracks consumer complaints – rather than call or text volume – and complaints about unwanted text messages have risen steadily in recent years from approximately 5,700 in 2019, 14,000 in 2020, 15,300 in 2021, to 8,500 through June 30, 2022,” the US communications watchdog’s Robocall Response Team said [PDF]. 

“In addition, some independent reports estimate billions of robotexts each month – for example, RoboKiller estimates consumers received over 12 billion robotexts in June.” 

Smishing baits reported to the FCC by American customers include statements concerning unpaid bills, package delivery concerns, bank account problems, or police enforcement activities. Links sending users to landing pages imitating bank websites and requesting them to authenticate a transaction or unlock frozen credit cards are among the most clever and persuasive baits used in text message phishing attempts. 

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