The term “smishing” is a mashup of SMS (short message service) and phishing, which is when fraudsters utilize malware by sending emails which mimic a trustworthy source such as credit card company, financial institution or retailer. Unsuspecting consumers mistakenly open the email and click on the links, allowing the malware to be activated.

Some smishers have deployed a tactic of telling people that if they fail to click on the link and provide their personal information, the company they’re pretending to be will start charging daily for the service. These fraudsters will attempt to fool you into thinking they are a legitimate source you would normally use or trust.

How to Prevent Smishing

These two words will help you avoid smishing attacks: Delete and block.

Just like emails, don’t reply to texts to people who are not in your address book. There are too many incidences of fraud and the headaches of identity theft are not worth it.

When a text message or SMS comes from a number such as “8000” and does not resemble a standard phone number, skip them. Those are simply emails that are sent to a smartphone.

As more and more people share links from articles, videos or social media, it is easy to just click on a link. Skip the ones from people you do not know. If the link looks suspicious or out of character to be coming from that particular friend, ask them if they sent it.