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Smishing and vishing are scams where criminals attempt to get users to click a fraudulent link through a phone text message, email, or voicemail. These scams are becoming increasingly popular as cybercriminals try to take advantage of people who are more likely to fall for them, such as those who aren’t as familiar with technology or who may be experiencing a crisis.
Be aware that cybercrime and hacking can happen to anyone. Criminals are always looking for new ways to exploit people, and they know that others may not be cautious or recognize the warning signs of phishing scams when using the internet. That’s why it’s important to be aware of the different types of cybercrime and how to protect yourself.
This article discusses how to protect yourself from smishing attempts and scams where criminals try to get you to click on a fraudulent link or respond to their voicemail message to steal your personal data.
Most people are familiar with phishing scams, where scammers try to trick you into giving them your personal or financial information by pretending to be a legitimate company or organization. But have you ever heard of smishing or vishing?
Smishing is a type of phishing scam where attackers send SMS messages (or text messages) to trick victims into sharing personal information or installing malware on their devices. Vishing is almost identical to smishing, except cybercriminals use VoIP (Voice over IP) to place phone calls to trick victims instead of SMS (short message service) messages.
Smishing messages often appear to be from a legitimate source, such as a well-known company or government agency. It may even include urgent language or threats in an effort to get victims to act quickly. In some cases, the message may also include a link that directs victims to a fake website where they are prompted to enter personal information or download malware.
Here are some examples of smishing text messages hackers use to steal your personal details:
If you fall for a smishing scam, you could end up giving away your personal information or money. Cybercriminals use smishing messages to get personal and financial information, like your credit card number or access to your financial services.
For example, one type of smishing scam is when you get a text message that looks like it’s from your bank. The message might say there’s been suspicious activity on your account and that you need to click on a link to verify your identity. If you do click on the link, you’ll be taken to a fake website where you’ll be asked to enter your banking information. Once the scammers have your login information, they have access to clean out your account.
Smishing scams can be very difficult to spot, but there are some telltale signs to look for and steps to take to protect yourself.
One of the easiest ways to protect yourself from smishing scams is to be able to recognize the signs of a smishing text message. Here are some tips:
While you can’t avoid smishing attacks altogether, you can block spam text messages you receive on your mobile phone. iPhone and Android have cybersecurity tools like spam filters and phone number blocking to help protect you from phishing attacks and malicious links.
To set up spam filters on your iPhone:
To set up spam filters on your Android mobile device:
McAfee Mobile Security is a mobile security app that helps protect your phone from malware, phishing attacks, and other online threats. McAfee Mobile Security is available for Android and iOS cell phones.
One of the benefits of using McAfee Mobile Security is that it can help detect and block smishing attacks. With identity monitoring, McAfee Mobile Security monitors your sensitive information like email accounts, credit card numbers, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and more to protect against identity theft. They notify you if they find any security breaches.
Other benefits include:
These days, our lives are more intertwined with our mobile devices than ever. We use them to stay connected with our loved ones on social media, conduct our business, and even access our most personal, sensitive data. It’s no surprise that mobile cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important.
McAfee Mobile Security is a comprehensive security solution that helps protect your device from viruses, malware, and other online threats. It also offers a variety of other features, like a secure VPN to protect your credit card numbers and other personal data.
Whether you’re browsing your favorite website, keeping up with friends on social media, or shopping online at Amazon, McAfee Mobile Security provides the peace of mind that comes from knowing your mobile device is safe and secure.
So why wait? Don‘t let the smishers win. Get started today with McAfee Mobile Security and rest easy knowing your mobile device and sensitive information are protected.
The post What Is Smishing and Vishing, and How Do You Protect Yourself? appeared first on McAfee Blog.
It’s hard to imagine a world without cellphones. Whether it be a smartphone or a flip phone, these devices have truly shaped the late 20th century and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But while users have become accustomed to having almost everything they could ever want at fingertips length, cybercriminals were busy setting up shop. To trick unsuspecting users, cybercriminals have set up crafty mobile threats – some that users may not even be fully aware of. These sneaky cyberthreats include SMSishing, fake networks, malicious apps, and grayware, which have all grown in sophistication over time. This means users need to be equipped with the know-how to navigate the choppy waters that come with these smartphone-related cyberthreats. Let’s get started.
If you use email, then you are probably familiar with what phishing is. And while phishing is commonly executed through email and malicious links, there is a form of phishing that specifically targets mobile devices called SMSishing. This growing threat allows cybercriminals to utilize messaging apps to send unsuspecting users a SMSishing message. These messages serve one purpose – to obtain personal information, such as logins and financial information. With that information, cybercriminals could impersonate the user to access banking records or steal their identity.
While this threat was once a rarity, it’s rise in popularity is two-fold. The first aspect being that users have been educated to distrust email messages and the second being the rise in mobile phone usage throughout the world. Although this threat shows no sign of slowing down, there are ways to avoid a cybercriminal’s SMSishing hooks. Get started with these tips:
Public and free Wi-Fi is practically everywhere nowadays, with some destinations even having city-wide Wi-Fi set up. But that Wi-Fi users are connecting their mobile device to may not be the most secure, given cybercriminals can exploit weaknesses in these networks to intercept messages, login credentials, or other personal information. Beyond exploiting weaknesses, some cybercriminals take it a step further and create fake networks with generic names that trick unsuspecting users into connecting their devices. These networks are called “evil-twin” networks. For help in spotting these imposters, there are few tricks the savvy user can deploy to prevent an evil twin network from wreaking havoc on their mobile device:
Fake apps have become a rampant problem for Android and iPhone users alike. This is mainly in part due to malicious apps hiding in plain sight on legitimate sources, such as the Google Play Store and Apple’s App Store. After users download a faulty app, cybercriminals deploy malware that operates in the background of mobile devices which makes it difficult for users to realize anything is wrong. And while users think they’ve just downloaded another run-of-the-mill app, the malware is hard at work obtaining personal data.
In order to keep sensitive information out of the hands of cybercriminals, here are a few things users can look for when they need to determine whether an app is fact or fiction:
With so many types of malware out in the world, it’s hard to keep track of them all. But there is one in particular that mobile device users need to be keenly aware of called grayware. As a coverall term for software or code that sits between normal and malicious, grayware comes in many forms, such as adware, spyware or madware. While adware and spyware can sometimes operate simultaneously on infected computers, madware — or adware on mobile devices — infiltrates smartphones by hiding within rogue apps. Once a mobile device is infected with madware from a malicious app, ads can infiltrate almost every aspect on a user’s phone. Madware isn’t just annoying; it also is a security and privacy risk, as some threats will try to obtain users’ data. To avoid the annoyance, as well as the cybersecurity risks of grayware, users can prepare their devices with these cautionary steps:
The post Cybercrime’s Most Wanted: Four Mobile Threats that Might Surprise You appeared first on McAfee Blog.
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