The FBI is warning people about another wave of bogus text-message scams targeting smartphone users.
Last month, the New York State Thruway Authority warned about text messages telling people that they had unpaid tolls. Clicking on a link in the text message would bring users to fake websites designed to steal users' personal data, including credit card, bank or Social Security information.
The latest FBI warning includes toll scams, but adds bogus messages from package delivery companies, Forbes reports.
The tactic is known as “smishing” — a combination of “SMS (Short Message Service ice) and “phishing” — and it uses text messages to trick people into giving out sensitive personal information.
The cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 posted on the social network X that a “threat actor” has registered more than 10,000 internet domains to be used in smishing scams. According to Palo Alto Networks, the domain names indicate pages impersonate services in at least 10 states — New York as well as California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas and Virginia — as well as the Canadian province of Ontario.
Here’s what the Federal Trade Commission suggests you do to avoid being scammed:
If you do click on any link or provide any information to a source you suspect is a scam, the FBI recommends that you take efforts to secure your personal information and financial accounts, and dispute any unfamiliar charges.
The FTC offers this guide to spotting and reporting spam text messages.
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