Topic: Why Scammers and hackers target mobile users via text messages? (Read 135 times)

I get daily text message scams to click a link. Guaranteeing a grand prize of millions of dollars, or a debit card has been locked.  A simple clickbait is a scammer’s paradise. Cellphones are the gateway wallet to personal identity, also known as “smishing”.
It is basically a robber pickpocketing someone's sophisticated style. Senior citizens are the easiest targets. One clicks on the link and some of the websites, and one cannot distinguish that it is a scam will be drawn to this. Like a social security number, a cellphone number must be protected.
This is so scary; our location and all our information can be taken from your cellphone. There must be a way to prevent this from occurring so often.

Hackers always try new and new messages to people to grab their money. They send phishing links by email or text messages or it can be a link on a website.
People should avoid and should recognize these kind of links and never open them. Otherwise these links can create problems for you.

BTW You gave nice suggestions and also gave good solution. Thanks.

I have an ROG phone, I am amazed it has another inbox for spams. All numbers that are not on my phonebook are automatically sent to the spam inbox and it is not giving me notifications either so I have less distractions. Messages from new numbers but I had contact them first either by calls and messages will notify me when they send messages and they are also sent to the right inbox. It's cool. But I know most phones do not work like this, I have two other phones and I do not have the same features as my ROG. You can advise your less technology updated parents to buy ROG if they are using many financial apps on their phones. ROG uses Android which is a downside to Apple lovers and it is a gaming phone.

Most phishing that I encountered with my airdrop wallet usually have the same format. Their style often have same looks and content. I think scammers and hackers have some sort of consortium with regards to this or have a group to scattered multiple links and distribute to their target users. Anyway more people are bwing aware of their scheme, with the help of information.

SMS are another channel to exploit with malware links, just as emails and social media networks are. I have perceived an increase of the usage of the former channel to send these sort of links as of late, and there are even government-based campaigns on the media (in my country of residence) these days warning people of these practices through SMSs.

I figure there is a combines set of reasons for this:

-   Scammers will diversify the methods and channels they use.

-   I’d say people may tend to be more confident in SMS received context, specially certain age segments, as it seems something rather personal.

-   The SMS channel has not been overly exploited with malware links. That gives them a certain chance because the channel may not yet be seen as a malware prone point of entry by many.

-   SMSs are a bit more difficult to visually identify the sender as been either legit or a scam just by looking at the sender’s information (after all, it’s just a phone number).

-   Emails have some degree of protection through spam filters, with years of work behind. They are certainly not impenetrable though, as we see on a daily basis. SMSs on the other hand, I believe, don’t have that much in play in this sense. I have seen some antiviruses that incorporate some sort of solution, and/or some apps that claim to help in this sense, but I’ve never really taken a look into it really (nor would likely feel inclined to give further snoop privileges to an app or such).

What to do is pretty clear, and is in line with making people conscious that malware can be received through this channel, just as it can over emails, needing to take similar precautions, develop a sense of wariness, and refrain from clicking links.

Most phishing messages I got has been from the emails that I have used for something like airdrops, pay-to-click and online surrveys before I knew their downsides. But WhatsApp phishing messages is also very common recently. But from the phishing messages alone, you will know they are only scam attempts.

Many people are using mobile phones, so they are the most targeted, it is normal. But anyone using a computer too can be exposed to the scam, like through email or social media.

yes sir, and also those scam campaigns also acquire those numbers either emails, from a hack databases from a certain company ,bought these people it, and then mass send suspicious links, but at the end of the day, we still have to be careful with these types of scams/hacks it might be not us , but one of our love ones, we must always remind them, about what  are the latest trends since we are the one who are most aware of these types of scheme.

Most scam campaigns mostly just mass send messages regardless if it's through email or text messaging. They don't usually make assumptions if this specific group are noobs or not — they just send the messages to all the contacts on their database.

I got the impression that you're overly concerned with the young and old. Because your mother is very old, older parents are unlikely to be actively involved in the life of the Internet. In the end, by clicking on any link, she definitely will not incur any losses because, logically, she simply does not have any important data on her phone.
But with children, I would agree. But then again, as a parent, I know all the warnings are useless. A child, even in adolescence, has the curiosity of a cat. There will be links that still tempt him to click on them.
You just need unobtrusive control of where and how much time your children, and maybe elderly parents, spend time on the Internet. And probably, in my opinion, while you understand that communication with the phone can be fraught, not store any important data in their phones.

There is a new mobile hack going on this days via text messages, I always get a link sent to my phone and the message have a download button, the sender hides his number so I can't block him for good.

The same message is ben sent to my brothers and sisters, even few of my friends and those who download the file lose all their money they have in the bank, this attack is going viral in my city right now.

All I can do is delete the message, sometimes three to four times a day.

Actually, sending phishing messages via email does not exclude any recipient device and also does not matter whether you are a beginner or an expert, it is completely random. Scammers only hope that from a list of thousands of email messages sent, some will be read by ignorant and careless people.

Hackers send you phishing links so that you reveal some sensitive information about yourself or people you interacted with (for example, your customers). Hackers may not know in advance that you are a worthy person to hack, but they anyway try to get your data in the hope to obtain something valuable. But in order to send you a "text message" with links, they first need to know your email address. How do they know that a certain address even exists and belongs to a real person? Well, they know because you unintentionally shared it with them: you probably registered on a platform or website that later was hacked, or its owners simply collected and shared your data without your consent. To protect yourself and your family from these malicious individuals, you should consider using separate email addresses for each platform. When you notice that one of your addresses started receiving strange emails, you will know on which platform the data leak occurred. The easiest way to organize your addresses and set up them for each service is to use disposable emails or aliases. The list of useful resources offering such kind of email services can be found here: https://www.privacyguides.org/email/

Every day we encounter messages via email sending us fake emails or pretending to be legit emails from the office, and from our friends but why suddenly do these hackers and scammers focus now on sending text messages with links?
I did small research for a while and here is what I think is the main reason:

• Mobile users are young and don't really understand that some text messages are dangerous especially the links when click accidentally
• Parents that are older like young ones don't understand that its dangerous to just click links

Why do I think this is one of the main reasons?
We don't fall victim to this kind of scam or hack because some of us encounter emails with links that give access to hackers, while our parents and you people are just getting hold of the technology they just encounter just now, they are trying to learn what we already know, but out of curiosity, and no knowledge regarding with this threat they fall, victim.
What should we do to avoid this?

• Before giving them gadgets try to educate them first it's okay to let them explore but guide them through it

I always remind my parents, especially my mother who is already old, he always received this kind of message, that if he doesn't know the person or the mobile that sends a mysterious message I told her to delete and block it immediately.
There is no reason for us to click anything since we don't know these people, this is happening all over the world and we should always not attempt to do something because once they get some information via those links we are in big trouble.
I hope this helps some who are having trouble with their young brother and sister, and their parents also