When we think of spam and phishing, we usually think of it as unwanted email filling our inboxes. Did you know spammers and phishers also use text messaging & SMS? Often, these messages will purport to come from the phone company or a popular email provider such as Google telling you you need to reply to a message to re-activate your account or to verify that your account has not been compromised. If you reply, any number of thing can happen from you being automatically signed up for unwanted services (and charged) to you being asked to verify your identity and password, or both! One common theme seen in these messages is as follows:
User #93848: Your Gmail account has been compromised . Reply to this message with SENDNOW when you are able to verify your account.
As always, NEVER reply to these messages or click any link they may contain! With the proliferation of smartphones, some links may contain malware.
Here is a list of common US providers and their methods of contacting them about spam:
AT&T Wireless – http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB115812&cv=820#fbid=0gUs6DsD-dU
T-Mobile – http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-2747
Verizon Wireless – http://support.verizonwireless.com/faqs/Features%20and%20Optional%20Services/spam_controls.html
When in doubt, you can usually find your text message online. For example, to verify if the above message was a smishing (SMS + phishing) message, I Googled the message (without the User #93848:) and here is what I found!
Have you received suspicious texts in the past? Post them here so others can see more examples of what these messages look like!