‘Smishing’ – SMS fishing

By on August 29, 2006 in Services

Link: News – IT Security News – SC Magazine UK.

Cell phone users are the target of a newly discovered phishing attack, which McAfee’s Avert Labs has dubbed “SMiShing.”

Affected users receive short message service (SMS) text messages alerting them of impending fee charges for a dating service.

Of course the moment you get such a message, you’re encouraged to go to this unknown dating site to try and unsubscribe… at which point the hacking can take place — whether it’s a trojan, credit card details, and so on. (Thanks Alex)

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  • John

    hmm, I’d have thought the cost of sending the SMS would have prohibited this speculative scam from occuring. Maybe the operators should put their prices up…

  • http://www.sendmytxt.com Alex

    Don’t forget in the US (and Canada I believe) you can reach most mobile subscribers by email to number@network.whatever – so the spammers could be using this? Combine war dialling and spamming and you’ve got the perfect way to reach millions of mobile subscribers at zero cost.

  • http://www.floridabassfishing.us Bass Fishing

    Of course the moment you get such a message, you’re encouraged to go to this unknown dating site to try and unsubscribe… at which point the hacking can take place

  • http://www.floridabassfishing.us Bass Fishing

    This is alarming. I didn't know that this could happen to your cellphone. Can you suggest any measures one can take to prevent these attacks on their cellphone?

  • max191

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