According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last year more scams originated through text messages than phone calls. Text message scams in which the scammers pose as your bank were the most common text message scam. Phony text messaging, called smishing, which purport to be from your bank is a scam about which I have been warning you for years, but is a scam that has dramatically increased recently. Scammers pose as your bank and send text messages informing you of an emergency such as a major charge has been made to your account and providing you with a link to click on to dispute the charge. If you click on the link you will be taken to a website that appears to be a legitimate website of your bank which prompts you to provide your user name and password. Unfortunately, if you do so you will be providing the scammer with full access to your bank account.
Now Australia’s Commowealth Banks has launched a new app powered by AI that allows you to send a screenshot of the message to the app which will then inform you if it is a scam.
Phony text messages like this can be particularly problematic if you have signed up to receive text message alerts from your bank. Whenever you receive a text message you can never be sure who is really sending it to you. Using a technique called “spoofing” the scammer can make the number that appears to be sending the text the same number as that of your bank. Making matters worse, this spoofed number text message may actually appear in a legitimate thread of text messages from your bank due to how messaging apps group conversations. Messaging apps like iMessage or Android Messages often group texts by sender ID not by the actual source of the message so if the scammers has spoofed the number it can appear in the same legitimate thread of the bank.
TIPS
The best course of action when you receive such a text message, if you have a concern that it may be legitimate, is to merely independently contact your bank to determine whether or not the text message was a scam, but be careful that you do not misdial the telephone number of your bank as some scammers purchase phone numbers similar to those of legitimate banks and credit card companies hoping that they will receive calls from unwary consumers who may have merely misdialed the telephone number of their bank or credit card company.
Regardless of how official such a text message may appear, you should never provide personal information to anyone in response to a telephone call, email or text message because in none of those situations can you be sure that the person contacting you is legitimate. If you do receive a communication from a bank, government agency or any other person or entity that you think might have a legitimate need for personal information from you, you should call the real entity at a telephone number that you know is legitimate in order to ascertain the truth.
Banks do not call, text or email their customers asking for personal information. You should always be skeptical of anyone asking for such information. Of course, if you receive a text message that appears to come from a bank at which you do not have an account, you can be confident it is a scam. If the text message provides for you to respond to stop future texts, don’t do it. Sending such a message to a scammer merely alerts them to the fact that yours is an active phone number.
Another step you should take to prevent your account from being taken over even if someone manages to get your user name and password is to set up dual factor authentication on your bank account.
Finally, although today’s Scam of the day focuses on phony bank text messages, it is a good idea to sign up to receive text alerts from your bank which can be customized for your own particular needs.
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