It seems like just a short time ago, consumers learned of online identity theft scams called ‘Phishing’.  Phishing is described as a fraudulent attempt, usually made through email, to steal personal information.  Phishing emails appear to come from a well-known organization and ask for personal data, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers and passwords or pins for ATM cards.  In order for identity thieves to ‘phish’ your personal information, they must coax you into clicking on a link within the fraudulent email that takes you to a website where your personal information is then requested.

In the age of the smartphone, ‘smishing’ has become the new ‘phishing’.  Instead of sending an email to request your personal information, identity thieves are now sending text messages to consumers.  Like ‘phishing’, these text messages will contain a link to a fraudulent website or they will request you reply to the fake phone number in an attempt to collect this data.  It is important to be aware of such threats, especially now that many smartphone users keep their personal data, such as credit card information, bank account information, etc. directly on their mobile devices.  Keep in mind, legitimate companies will never ask you to ‘confirm’ or ‘verify’ your sensitive information via text message or email.

If you do receive an unsolicited text message that you think is a scam you can forward that text message to 7726 (SPAM) to have the number blocked.

Sources: ww.idt911.com

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