Smishing Hits Close to Home

No sooner had I read a story in the SMH about Smishing – a form of Phishing via SMS – then I got a call from my mother telling me she’d won $120,000 on lotto via an SMS.

Of course she didn’t believe it, but what both she and I found insidious about this particular attempt to get money for nothing, was that it happened directly after the $90 million lotto draw last night. This suggests a whole lot went out last night, so if you receive an SMS telling you that you have won this modest amount of money, you haven’t. A couple of things to remember, if you have won lotto, the people who run the competition will call you, not SMS or email.

This scam is interesting, because these guys are not going after huge amounts of money, just $1000, unlike the Nigerian scams where they try and get your bank details. Still money is money, and these guys claim to be from Thailand where AU$1000 can go a long way.

As technology has advanced, so have the scams to try and part you from your hard-earned cash. But there is an upside – we can tell you about them just as quickly. And, you know, if you’ve heard this once during your lifetime, you’ve heard it 1000 times, but it’s worth repeating – if it sounds too good to be true, 99.9 percent of the time it is. If you are unsure, ignore. If it is a genuine email, they will contact you again, but even then I would double-check the source.