Phishing text messages (smishing).
SMS phishing skips your spam filter, lands on your phone, and exploits your trust in a small screen. Here's how to spot and ignore it.
Smishing — phishing over SMS — has exploded in the last two years because it works so well. No email filter to catch it, a small screen that hides URLs, and your phone is generally where you're the most distracted. Most people click a sketchy text faster than they'd click the same link in an email.
Why SMS is a better attack channel
Corporate email has layers — spam filters, URL rewriting, phishing training, maybe a security team. SMS on a personal or company phone has none of that. Links are shortened, sender numbers are spoofed, and the urgency of a text feels different from an email. A message that'd feel fake on a laptop feels plausible on a lock screen.
The common scripts
“A text from "USPS" saying a package is held and you need to click a link to schedule redelivery.”
Red flag: USPS doesn't text redelivery links. The link leads to a credential-harvesting or card-capture page.
“A text from "your bank" warning of a large charge and asking you to tap YES or NO.”
Red flag: Real bank fraud alerts come through the bank's app, not shortened-URL texts.
“A text from "your CEO" asking for a quick favor, with no context and urgency.”
Red flag: The number is a burner. Your CEO's real number is already saved in your phone.
The one habit that stops smishing
Never tap links in unsolicited texts. If your bank texts you — open the bank's app. If USPS texts you — go to usps.com directly. If the CEO texts from an unknown number — call their real number. The whole class of attack dies at that habit.
Train your team.
A 10-minute smishing refresher during your next team meeting saves you a phishing investigation later.
- 1Train staff: unsolicited text links are never safe, regardless of sender.
- 2For anything from a bank, shipper, or service, go directly to the app or website.
- 3Save the real mobile number for your CEO, CFO, and key vendors — treat anything else as untrusted.
- 4Report smishing to your carrier (forward to 7726 / SPAM) and to threats@networkbrainiacs.com.
- 5Include smishing examples in your annual security awareness training.
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