You can prevent Smishing scams with these features and tricks

NCOA estimates that Americans will receive 19.2 billion fraudulent texts in 2024, which is about 63 fake texts per American per month. With SMS phishing attacks – known as smishing attacks – on the rise, it’s time to harness the power of a few useful tools to avoid becoming a victim.

TextKiller

Instead of trying to figure out if a text message is real or fake, why not let an app like TextKiller do it for you? TextKiller (only available on iOS) claims to block up to 99% of spam text messages. To do this, it compares the texts you receive from an ever-growing database of funny messages. If the received text resembles any of the texts from its database, it will be automatically blocked. If you have enabled TextKiller, you can also filter between texts that are transactional, promotional and spam.

Setting up TextKiller is simple. After downloading TextKiller, open it iMessages settings, go to Unknown and spamand press Enable TextKiller button.

The app offers a seven-day free trial, after which you will have to pay $69.99 per year or $4.99 per week. That may seem like a high price, but it’s not compared to the billions of dollars lost to phishing attacks.

Permission slip

In 2006, British mathematician Clive Humby declared that data is the new oil. The comment turned out to be prophetic as every company these days gobbles up our data and uses it for whatever purpose they see fit. The more personal data that is collected, the more likely it is to fall into the wrong hands.

To prevent this, you can easily ask companies not to delete or sell your personal information using a Permission Slip (available for Android and iOS). You can request that your data be deleted or not sold from almost any company you’ve ever dealt with.

If you pay the $59.99 annual fee, Permission Slip will fill out the removal request forms for you. If you opt for the free version, the app will redirect you to the right page where you can fill out the necessary form to find out how your data is being used.

Smartphone features that block smishing scams

The messaging app you use probably has some built-in features to help protect you from scam texts. You just have to learn how to use them.

Message filtering

iMessage does not automatically identify and block suspicious text messages, but it can filter messages. You can filter messages using one of the following filtering options:

• All news
• Known senders
• Unknown senders
• Unread messages

Many of us may have our filter set to All Messages. If so, you are undoubtedly communicating with laughing messages. You may not click on the link or reply to these messages, but you still open them. If you open enough ridiculous messages, you’ll have to interact with one the way the scammer wants you to. Avoid this by changing the filter to Known Senders.

Android spam protection

If you use an Android device, you can enable it to automatically detect spam messages. If Google News detects a fraudulent message, it will automatically place it in the spam folder, preventing you from interacting with it in any way. Google identifies spam messages by scanning the links in each message and checking the URL to see if the link is malicious. Unencrypted messages may also occasionally be scanned to detect and improve Google’s AI detection model.

To enable spam protection, open Google Messages, click your initials in the upper right corner, then click Message settings and Spam protection. Once here, you will have the option to enable spam protection.

Report suspicious texts

Both iMessage and Google Messages allow users to report text messages. Reporting a text message in these apps sends information about the text to Apple or Google and your phone carrier.

Phone carriers such as AT&T will send these reported messages to their ActiveArmor security team for evaluation. If they conclude that it is a ridiculous message, they will block the phone number and remove any websites, email accounts or resources associated with it. They will also share this information with other carriers and security partners in the industry.

Do not text back or click on the link

We’ve all received a text from someone who appears to be texting the wrong phone number. Our instinct is to help them and send the message that they have the wrong number. Ten years ago, smishing scams were rare and it’s possible that the person messaging you had the wrong number, but that rarely happens anymore.

Cybercriminals engage in months-long social engineering attacks to gain your trust before convincing you to send them money or invest in a risky scheme known as the Pig Slaughter Scam. According to Time, as of 2020, victims worldwide have collectively lost more than $75 billion.

Not only could you be scammed, but sending an SMS message verifies that your number is active. This could lead to your number being bundled with thousands of others and sold on the dark web, making you the target of even more scam messages.

Also, make sure you don’t click on any links. These links may be malware or take you to a fake website where your credentials will be stolen.

Stop giving your number away

The only reason you fell victim to smishing scams is because the criminal has your number. Create a smaller digital footprint by never giving out your digits. Companies love to collect and then sell your personal information. If you give your number to one company, there is a good chance they will sell it to another. Criminals can buy phone numbers legally from data brokers or on the dark web.

Smishing messages are becoming more common and sophisticated, as are the tools and procedures used to identify and block them. Using the tools and following the tips we’ve detailed can greatly reduce your risk of falling victim to a smishing attack.