Summary: SMS phishing is very common nowadays. But to get deterred with it does not sound nice! This article shows how a common man and a businessman can stay away from SMS phishing and collaborate with a good SMS provider to give wholesome returns.
The nationwide lockdown did not just rip away several jobs but also made the market stagnant. With no source of income, several people are turning towards SMS phishing or SMISHING. A person can easily recognize an email fraud and get rid of it. But an SMS fraud is hard to distinguish. And several businesses have chosen bulk SMS service over traditional marketing that has made the task all the more difficult than already is.
- Fraud Bank SMS: A fake one will always use a link and a genuine bank will never use a link. Some of them may test your greed or fear to send lucratively and attention-grabbing SMS to lure you into the trap and urge you to fill in the necessary credentials/login details.
During the lockdown, many of us got several fraud SMSes like: “You’re A/C can be created with Rs330000. Enter your details and check now.”
A normal credit SMS from the bank looks like this: You’re A/C XXXXX044668 has a credit by cheque of Rs 30,000 on 23/10/2020. All Bal Rs 34,763.91. Download YONO@ www.yonosbi.com
The difference between both the SMS is, your account’s last 6digits are already displayed and it is not asking for any login details. This Bank SMS is a variant of bulk SMS- Transactional SMS (To build trust and a good bond with your account holder)
- Account Suspensions: These SMS will falsely accuse you of incorrect pin submission that has resulted in blocking of your card. Let us see both the examples
Fraud: MD-659159
STATE BANK OF INDIA
Dear Customer your ATM/Debit Card is blocked due to fraud usage, call 080-3951-0674
Genuine: BP-PYTMB
Your debit card ending 2193 has been temporarily blocked due to repeated wrong PIN attempts. Please try again after resetting the PIN
In both the examples we saw in the fraud one, that the SMS is asking for high-security professional logins, and in the genuine, the PAYTM bank is showing concern that due to repetitive and incorrect PIN logins, the debit card has been temporarily locked.
- Fake Competitions: You will never win a prize if you haven’t entered one! So, do not entertain these kinds of SMS. Most brands use quiz and surveys as a mode of gaining the pain points of customers.
Excerpts from GNEC MEDIA
- Do not share personal information (login credentials, PINs, etc) with anyone
- Please check grammar and spelling errors like Paytm is genuine but PAYTM notation is not genuine
- Ensure sender validity
- Please set up a 2-factor authentication for your bank account, even if they might get your details but they won’t be able to retrieve any info further
Final Verdict: It is important to stay away from SMS phishing but not too away from a bulk SMS provider, who can give you much-awaited attention, appraisal, great reviews, customer satisfaction, and a lot of profits.