Analysts at Dojo have revealed the top 20 brands most commonly impersonated in smishing text message scams, used by criminals to trick people across the UK into revealing personal and financial information, such as passwords or bank details.
With more people relying on mobile technologies during the pandemic, it has given cybercriminals a unique opportunity for scammers to target those who have had to use text messages to connect with companies – delivery couriers were found to have had an increase of up to 829 per cent in these types of scams since last year.
With this in mind, the card payment provider analysed Google search volumes for well-known SMS scams to see which reputable companies are being fraudulently impersonated the most.
Dojo’s Chief Information Security Officer, Naveed Islam, also shares five tips on how to spot a smishing text.
Brands most likely to be impersonated in smishing text messages
- Royal Mail
- Hermes
- DPD
- PayPal
- DHL
- Halifax
- Santander
- HMRC
- Barclays
- DVLA
- Amazon
- Parcelforce
- UPS
- Apple Pay
- Virgin Media
- Tesco
- GOV.UK
- Uber
- Sky
- Just Eat
Google search data reveals that Royal Mail is the most commonly impersonated brand by scammers, with a total of 30,200 UK residents searching for Royal Mail scam texts per month.
Royal Mail may top the list due to the nature of their service, handling and delivering customers packages, so it may seem reasonable to ask for your details and…
