Can you be scammed by opening a text message?

Can you be scammed by opening a text message?

Text message or SMS phishing—also called “smishing”—occurs when scam artists use deceptive text messages to lure consumers into providing their personal or financial information.

How can you tell a fake text message?

How to identify a fake text message step-by-step

1. Step 1: The message is irrelevant to you. …
2. Step 2: The text message contains misspellings or poor grammar. …
3. Step 3: Abnormally long numbers. …
4. Step 4: It offers random prizes. …
5. Step 5: The text message contains a suspicious link.

Why am I getting text messages about a package?

This type of text message is a scam called smishing. Smishing is a form of phishing that involves a text message or phone number. Victims will typically receive a deceptive text message that is intended to lure the recipient into providing their personal or financial information.

What happens if you click on a fake text message?

What Happens If You Click on a Phishing Link? Clicking on a phishing link or opening an attachment in one of these messages may install malware, like viruses, spyware or ransomware, on your device. This is all done behind the scenes, so it is undetectable to the average user.

Can someone steal your information through a text?

Smishing is when fraudsters use text messaging to impersonate a trusted organization and steal your identifying information, such as your Social Security number, account usernames and passwords, bank account information or credit card numbers.

Can you get hacked by replying to a text on iPhone?

Zero-Click Exploit In a chilling cautionary tale, a New York Times journalist says a hacker was able to access his iPhone after sending him a text message — even though he never clicked anything.