U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Cyber Directorate is warning the Army community about cellphone text cyber threats and offering tips to avoid this fast growing scam.
Similar to email messaging scams, cybercriminals use Short Message Service (SMS) or text messaging to try and trick consumers into clicking links in the message.
“Smishing is very similar to phishing via email except the message is received on a smartphone as a SMS message, also known as a text,” said Edward LaBarge, assistant director of CID’s Cyber Directorate. “Cybercriminals are combining the two social engineering tactics to place malware on your device or to obtain personal information from the user.”
With roughly 290 million smartphone users in the United States, cybercriminals have a target-rich environment. Cellular phone users, and even those with a hardline, have likely received or is familiar with robocalls and vishing attacks, which are voice phishing to obtain personal information such as financial or credit card information. The recommended course of action for these types of calls has been to ignore or hang up and register the receiving phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry through the Federal Trade Commission or block the robocall or vishing number via the receiving cell phone.
A similar tactic increasing in popularity among…
