How to understand that you are being deceived by SMS

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Messages can promise you a lot: millions and cars, seizure of all property or blocking of bank accounts. Lifehacker tells how to separate grains from chaff and honest SMS from fraudulent ones.

You have been sent a link to the media file

Situation

New message received: “You have been sent a picture. To view, follow the link …”Sound familiar? The text of the SMS can be anything: an advertisement for a mobile application, a sent song, or an appeal from a mysterious stranger with an offer to see her photo. Recently, a scheme with the "arrest" of your funds or property by "bailiffs" has become especially popular.

Thus, scammers try to force you to go to the suggested address. And there can be anything: from automatic subscription to paid services to a viral program for withdrawing money through a mobile bank.

What to do

• Ignore messages prompting you to follow any link.
• Check the information sent through reliable sources.
• Install applications, download pictures and listen to music from official online stores.

You have won an incredible prize

Situation

Unexpected joy: it was reported that it was your phone number that became the winning one in a unique lottery and you will receive a million dollar gift! Or you have become the owner of the finest foreign car! Or a whole house! One "but" … To receive this wonderful gift, you need to do a mere trifle: pay a penny (in comparison with the value of the prize) tax or transportation costs.

Of course, no one canceled the favor of fortune, but this is how scammers receive money transfers from those who want to get rich. And the prizes and contests mentioned do not actually exist.

What to do

• Having received SMS of such content, remember if you participated in any contests at all. If not, just delete the suspicious message and forget about it.
• If the hope of victory still lingers in your soul, contact the official organizer of the drawing, which is mentioned in the message. Please check if the prize is currently being awarded and if you are the winner.
• Do not transfer any amounts of money to suspicious persons. No way.

You are asked to call back

Situation

Oh my god, your credit card is blocked! Or you are offered the opportunity to download a unique ringtone melody. Or something else insanely attractive. And the only thing that is required of you is to call the indicated number.

But after the call (which may not even be answered), a couple or two hundred rubles will only disappear from your account.

What to do

• Check the information provided in the message through official sources: on the website of a bank, mobile operator or government agency.
• Fill in the text of the message in the search engine: most often scammers use template phrases and wording.
• Delete the suspicious message and forget about it.

You are asked to transfer money

Situation

Is a message from an unknown number supposedly from a close relative (not necessarily existing) accompanied by a plea to urgently transfer money? We do not deny that it really can be a relative. But most likely, when, after showing your own generosity, you contact your brother-in-law, you will simply not be understood. After all, the man himself did not write this and did not ask for money.

What to do

Contact your relative directly. Call him or people who can talk to him personally

You are asked to provide information about your bank card

Situation

This happens most often if you sell something over the Internet. They may write to you with a proposal to transfer money for the purchase right now, but when you agree with the transfer, problems will begin to arise. The buyer will ask you to provide him with the information about your card, allegedly necessary to eliminate these problems. But in the end, you will not receive payment, and besides, you will lose your own non-cash savings.

But this is a complex scheme: sometimes scammers can simply ask for your PIN, posing as a bank employee.

What to do

Remember that in order to make money transfers, you only need to know the card number. Its expiration date, CVC code, name and surname of the holder are not needed. And the PIN code cannot be disclosed to anyone at all.

What kind of suspicious messages came to your phone? Share in the comments.