Sms Phishing a.k.a SMISHING
Internet crime is everywhere, from pharmaceutical sites, to malware that logs your keystrokes, to 419 
scams, to money mule services. It’s getting more and more difficult for spammers to succeed through emails, and many are beginning to text message instead of email. A new type of attack that is gaining speed is Smishing or sms phishing. The term Smishing was coined in by David Rayhawk, a senior researcher at McAfee Avert Labs.
With the growth in messaging service subscriptions and cell phone providers looking to compete against the Internet, mobile device users are increasingly becoming targets for hackers, spam and other attacks that attempts to trick them into revealing personal information because people are much more accustomed to ignoring spam emails, but not text messages.
Scammers have really gone high tech now with smishing becoming the new buzzword. Smishing is a security attack in which user’s are tricked into downloading a Trojan, virus or other malware onto their cellular phone or to the network and add massive charges to corporate cell phone bills. What is does is that some messages are sent which warn the consumer about getting charged unless he/she cancels the supposed order by going to a website that then extracts such sensitive information like credit card details, passwords and other private data.
How to stay safe:-
• Never Open/Respond to messages from unknown sources.
• Verify the source/content of all unexpected messages.
• Don’t send text messages in response to Ads for free ring tones, jokes, horoscopes, etc.
• Never provide any form of financial or personal information in response to an unsolicited message.
Sherwin Azavedo
Manager: Cyber Crime Complaint
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