Identity Theft Expert; “Phexting” is the new phish “I ain’t got stupid written on my forehead”

Identity Theft Speaker Robert Siciliano www.IDTheftSecurity.com Article here; Text Message Scam

Interviewed for this article the victims states “I ain’t got stupid written on my forehead” I’m sure she is a lovely woman who must be smarter than her quote. She received a scam text and didnt get taken.

Most of us are somewhat aware of text messaging scams. Ive never received one. But I’m seeing a flood of local news reports on the issue. I’ve yet to see a national story on what I predict will become as bad as phishing in emails.

The problem stems from criminal hackers who are using technology to generate cell phone numbers based on area code first, plugging in the cell carriers given extension then generating the last 4 numbers.

Do a search on mass sms software and you will find lots and lots of vendors providing free and small fee programs to send mass texting.

Sexting is when teens send sex pics to one another. Robert Siciliano (me) says “Phexting” is the new phish.

Whats happening is browsers and email clients are doing a better job of protecting the naive. Phexting is the path of least resistance to get to the victim.

Most web based email providers do a pretty good job of recognizing that an email is a phish. First they send it right to spam or they might display a red banner along top of the email in the preview pane.

Up to date browsers have phish filters that recognized a spoofed website. This feature works if you dont turn it off.

While all these tools are helpful, nothing will fix the problem better than simple common sense. I aint got stupid written on my forehead either. But too many people do. And snake oil salesman can smell them from 10,000 miles away.

Heres a video on Phishing: