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Articles · Phishing · 2 min read
What is smishing?
Smishing is a scam text message — phishing that arrives by SMS instead of email. It's the text-message version of phishing: a text pretending to be your bank, a delivery company or a toll road. It works in four steps:
The text arrives
Posing as someone you trust
A message lands claiming to be a delivery notice, a bank alert, an unpaid toll or fine, or a problem with one of your accounts. The sender name looks ordinary, so you read it as real.
The pressure
A small problem, right now
It names an urgent little issue — a parcel held, a payment declined, an account locked — and offers a link to fix it fast. The rush is the point: it stops you pausing to check.
The fake page
A convincing copy
The link opens a page that looks just like a real login or payment screen. The logo, colours and wording match the company it's imitating, so nothing seems off.
The catch
Straight to the sender
Whatever you type there — password, card number, one-time code — goes directly to the person who sent the text, not the real company. Minutes later they use it to sign in or spend. A real company never needs you to log in from a text link — open the app yourself instead.
If a text asks you to tap a link and log in, treat that as the warning sign. Don't act from the message — go to the company through their app or a number you already have.
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Phishing · 2 min
What is phishing?