Although the name may not be as familiar as “phishing” which is the name for emails that lure you into clicking on malware infected links or providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft, “smishing” is the name given to text messages that lure you into clicking on links or providing personal information in response to a text message from what appears to be a trusted source, such as a company with which you do business.

Smishing scams have increased in frequency over the last year.  Like phishing emails, the purpose of a smishing text message is to either lure you into providing personal information that will be used to make you a victim of identity theft or to click on a link in the text message that will download dangerous malware.

Recently, the United States Postal Service issued a warning about smishing text messages that appear to come from the United States Postal Service (USPS) alerting the targeted victim about a phony delayed package delivery.  These smishing messages lure people into clicking on malware infected links or providing personal information that can lead to identity theft.

TIPS

As I always say, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”  You can never be truly sure when you receive a text message seeking personal information such as your credit card number whether or not the email is a scam. The risk of clicking on a link or providing the requested information is just too high. Instead, if you think that a text message that appears to come from the United States Postal Service might be legitimate, you should contact your local post office at a telephone number that you know is legitimate and find out whether or not the text message was a scam.

As for text messages from the USPS,  if you never signed up for a USPS tracking request for a specific package you won’t be receiving a text message from the USPS.  The Postal Service offers free tools to track specific packages, but customers are required to either register online, or initiate a text message, and provide a tracking number. The USPS will not send customers text messages or e-mails without a customer first requesting the service with a tracking number, and they will never contain a link so, if you did not initiate the tracking request for a specific package directly from USPS and it contains a link it is a smishing text and not from the USPS.

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