Top tips on protecting your business against fraudulent SMS

Protect from fraudulent SMS and smishing

You may have already heard of the term “smishing”. Smishing is a buzzword which blends together “SMS” and “phishing”. Just like the emails we receive, we now have to be cautious of text messages. Cybercriminals are out there trying to trick you into clicking on a malicious link and we need to make sure we can spot the signs and protect people and businesses. 

Spotting Smishing SMS

Spotting scam messages is becoming increasingly difficult. However, there are a few common tricks that fraudsters will use to try and get you to respond. 

  • Generic messages – be sceptical of messages that seem impersonal and contain phrases such as  “Dear customer” and fail to use your name.
  • Is the SMS from your bank, doctor, a solicitor, or a government department?  Cybercriminals sometimes pretend to be people of authority or organisations to trick you into doing what they say.
  • Focus on the details and be cautious of links to fake sites. Look out for the slightest spelling difference or symbols in a URL. 
  • Unknown telephone numbers – if you do not know the number, try and do some research. 
  • Urgency – Are you told you have a limited time to respond? Fraudsters often threaten you with negative consequences if you do not take action straight away. 
  • Poor grammar and spelling mistakes – scammers are not always professional and can easily slip up by making poor grammatical errors.

What to do if you do receive a fraudulent SMS:

  • You can forward the SMS, to 7726, making sure you do not click on the link included in the message.
  • You will receive a text back requesting the mobile number of the fraudulent text.
  • The information shared to 7726 will be available to all mobile operators, the Information Commissioner’s Office and various approved organisations who are involved in criminal investigations, including the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to enable them to identify the senders.

We know that 25% of small to medium sized businesses do not survive a critical data loss. Risks to data can result from viruses and malware. Make sure to protect your business with cloud-based storage by contacting someone from our team today. 

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