With the kind of benefits that the SMS channel brings for the exponential growth of corporations, the efficient method to communicate with customers also comes up with some drawbacks if not avoided by the receiver of the messages. What one needs to be vigilant about is SMS Spoofing which fraudsters use very often to trick gullible clients.
The term SMS Spoofing, which is actually different from phishing and smishing, is mostly used interchangeably even by industry-knowing people. What is common though among these terms is that almost every cyberattack that comes fore is created using one of the three. All these are used — by players from anywhere in the world — for financial purposes.
What is SMS Spoofing?
Spoofing involves changing the sender’s details like the phone number and the name for unscrupulous purposes. This cannot be blocked or replied back because the sender impersonates to meet the end result.
What happens in the process is that the receiver receives the message, thinking it to be from the known contact but in reality, someone has impersonated one in the contact list. At times the sender changes all the details.
Spoofing not only involves impersonating the sender’s details but to carry out cyber criminal activity various other methods are used in manipulating data.
The Process of SMS Spoofing
Since both phishing and spoofing are scams, the latter involves changing the sender’s details which the receiver trusts a lot. Further, with the help of the internet, the one who initiates illegal messaging can easily use the names of well-known brands and financial institutions.
There are platforms that offer SMS Spoofing and help fraudsters in tricking gullible customers. To make sure that the receiver does not doubt the message being sent, the sender very cleverly changes a letter or number which is not decipherable. This makes it difficult for the person on the receiving end to make out whether the message is by a fraudster or not.
The target of these fraudsters is mainly those who are waiting to get confirmation from the bank or an e-commerce platform. They are bound to respond even to messages which are remotely related to their concerned bank.
Various Types of SMS Spoofing
The messages that are sent illegally are not only sent with the aim of getting financial details but there are other reasons behind sending these texts. Some are listed below:
Impersonating Sender IDs
Some of the senders represent themselves as one from a well-known company or brand. Usually, these messages are accompanied by links that the receiver clicks and helps the fake sender in accomplishing the mission he/she had set out for.
Money Transfer
Since the use of e-commerce platforms is on the rise, scammers have not left this unscathed. In case they have access, the amount will be unintentionally deducted from the user’s account and transferred to the destination that was determined by the scammer.
Emergency
The possibilities for the users of SMS Spoofing are endless. To get meet their end result of getting money from innocent users, the emergency trick is employed by all who initiate the scam. More often than not they succeed in these illicit activities.
Ways To Avoid SMS Spoofing
As was discussed above, the use of SMS Spoofing is rampant in the SMS industry, people ought to be very vigilant while interacting with suspicious senders. The best way to ensure that you are not tricked by the scammer or a fraudster is to analyze the sender’s details very carefully and better yet install a reliable anti-virus app. Further, it is better to respond to messages after due deliberation.
