It can feel like there is no way to combat the anonymous messages, which tempt you to click a link that can dupe you out of money and private information, or give scammers access to your phone.
They are showing no sign of slowing down either, with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Scamwatch department already experiencing a 106 per cent increase in SMS scam reports this year alone.
“In January we received 8454 reports to Scamwatch about scam SMS with $1.4 million lost,” an ACCC spokesperson said.
“In 2021 Scamwatch received over 67,000 scam reports where contact was by SMS with $10 million lost.”
Similarly, Telstra received 11,100 SMS scam reports from customers last year – compared to just 50 reports in 2020.
Have you received a robotext in the last week?
“Australia and its people are now under cyber attack all the time,” Telstra CEO Andy Penn has said.
“SMS scammers and other cyber criminals are not going to stop.”
April Glover, from Sydney, receives on average one to two scam texts each day.
“It’s been pretty constant ever since July last year,” she said.
“They are really frustrating. As someone who online shops a lot, I’ve almost been fooled once or twice with the ‘Your…
