I love it when people come up to me and say they are “wicked paranoid” about QR codes. I have been trying to educate people on the risks of QR codes for years and that gives me satisfaction that I have prevented that person from becoming a victim of a malicious QR code. QR codes
Smishing
Privacy Tip #446 – Department of Motor Vehicles Warns Drivers About Smishing Text Surge
Smishing schemes involving Departments of Motor Vehicles nationwide have increased. Scammers are sending SMS text messages falsely claiming to be from the DMV that “are designed to deceive recipients into clicking malicious links and submitting personal and/or financial information under false threats of license suspension, fines and credit score or legal penalties.”
The Rhode Island…
Privacy Tip #440 – Text Scam Proceeds Surpass $470M in 2024
I have been getting a lot of texts that are clearly scams, and those around me have confirmed an increase in spammy texts.
According to an FTC Consumer Protection Data Spotlight, individuals lost over $470 million resulting from text scams. The top text scams of 2024 that accounted for half of the $470 million…
Privacy Tip #435 – Threat Actors Go Retro: Using Snail Mail for Scams
We have educated our readers about phishing, smishing, QRishing, and vishing scams, and now we’re warning you about what we have dubbed “snailing.” Yes, believe it or not, threat actors have gone retro and are using snail mail to try to extort victims. TechRadar is reporting that, according to GuidePoint Security, an organization received several…
Privacy Tip #428 – Getting Text Messages From E-ZPass or Toll Road Operators? They’re Scams Coming from China
This week, I received a fake text message (a smish) saying my E-ZPass account was overdue and that I urgently needed to pay it. That’s a new one and, apparently, quite effective. Luckily, I knew it was a scam, but others were victimized.
According to the website Krebs on Security, security researchers “say the…
Privacy Tip #411 – Phishing Attacks Increased 40% in 2023
Everyone thinks they can spot a phishing email. If true, we would not see so many security incidents, data breaches, and ransomware attacks. The statistics are overwhelming that phishing emails are a significant cause of data breaches.
If everyone was able to spot a phishing email, threat actors would stop using them. It wouldn’t be…
Privacy Tip #393 – Phishing, Smishing, Vishing and Qrishing Schemes Continue to Dupe Users
The recent increase in smishing and vishing schemes is prompting me to remind readers of schemes designed to trick users into providing credentials to perpetrate fraud. We have previously written on phishing, smishing, vishing, and QRishing schemes to increase awareness about these methods of intrusion.
HC3 recently warned the health care sector about vishing schemes…
Twilio Hit with Social Engineering Smishing Scheme
We’ve explained smishing schemes before [view related posts]. Smishing is like phishing, but uses SMS texting to deliver malicious code to users’ phones, or tricks the user into visiting a malicious website to steal their credentials or money. Hence, the important tip is to be very wary of texts from unknown individuals urging you…
Privacy Tip #340 – Smishing Scams Reminder
The Twilio and Cloudfare smishing attacks [view related post] provide a timely reminder of how sophisticated smishing attacks are and how they can affect businesses and their customers. But threat actors don’t just attack businesses– they also attack individual users, hoping to trick them into giving the threat actors credentials for access into personal…
Vishing Continues to be a Risk Worth Assessing
Phishing, Smishing, Vishing, and QRishing. All of these schemes continue to pose risk to organizations that needs to be assessed and addressed.
Vishing made a strong debut during the pandemic [view related post], and continues to be a scheme that is surprisingly successful.
This week, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (in the wake of another…