Even UPS is full of it truck… Text messaging phishing is the scourge of the computer world. Everyone has a smart phone in their pocket, so it’s very tempting for fraudsters, who indirectly profit from the inability of networks and devices to prevent this practice.
It’s safe to say that the US carrier UPS is perhaps the one that benefits the most these days from the explosion of e-commerce. Its brown trucks adorned with its golden logo are everywhere. We see them more than the blue trucks of Amazon Prime, which are not rare on our roads either.
Moreover, this rivalry with Amazon has led UPS to push hard to adopt a package tracking system that is as informative as possible for consumers. This includes sending email and text message alerts. It is not impossible that UPS or Amazon will launch one of these days a virtual reality application that will allow you to track your packages as if you were yourself sitting in their trucks.
Brief.
The famous click too many
It’s not just UPS that is benefiting from the growing popularity of expedited delivery. Fraudsters are also sniffing out the bargain. They used to do it before, but now they do it with a lot more insistence: they bombard mailboxes all over the world with fake messages alerting them to a problem with the delivery, a package being held, an unpaid tax or unforeseen customs fees to be settled before delivery.
Obviously, anyone who clicks on the link included in the message to choose a means of payment is a little too naively putting their finger in the gears of online fraud.
Perhaps because internet users are a little more vigilant than before, or perhaps because it’s a new method for delivery services, scammers have recently made the jump to text messaging.
New channel, same bad taste: “Your parcel is withheld, you must pay a fee by clicking here”, is the refrain of a song that many consumers have heard more often than not in recent months.
In fact, this song is playing this summer more times than the biggest hit on the radio. California-based security firm Proofpoint has just released a report that says phishing texting is up 500% in Canada since March.
In English, this phenomenon has a name: smishing, for “SMS phishing”. We have not yet officially named the thing in French, but it is no less important in Quebec than elsewhere on the continent, specifies Proofpoint, which sent us some screenshots of fraudulent messages written in French.
Calling all: what should we call the smishing in French ? We mean: other than by a litany of swear words that we invariably end up shouting to vent the frustration caused by this umpteenth form of online scam…
Swarming? Not sure…
The official translation is not one. “Text Phishing” is a phrase, not a translation. We are still looking for the exact term!
Limited remedies
Like fake emails, you should obviously not interact with these fake texts, other than by reporting them to your wireless service provider. Providers own the wireless networks and they have the best protection filters against mobile fraud.
If we had to report each of the fraudulent messages received by text message, we would spend our days being told to “keep the line, your call is important to us”, while waiting for a real agent to answer us. And tell us that everything is already done to protect us as best as possible.
One can find an option in the drop-down menus of smart phones to block or report fraudulent messages received via SMS. Again, the manufacturers swear they are doing everything they can to protect their customers.
Yet one has the impression that the public is left to fend for itself in the face of online fraud, which constantly changes form to better adapt to its changing habits.
Tech giants can calculate down to the second how much time their customers spend roaming on another network and never miss an opportunity to charge for it. But they are helpless when it comes to spotting fraudsters and preventing them from operating on their same networks.
That is strange…
The result is that there is little the public can do to prevent the emergence of the smishing (“texting”?).
On the side of UPS, we still suggest some wise precautions.
First, breathe through your nose. Your package will eventually be sent to you. Mobile frauds capitalize on the panic and haste of their targets.
Next, do not click on any link, even those received by SMS. With companies like Amazon, UPS, Canada Post or the others, you can resume the conversation by manually going to their site and accessing your customer account.
Finally, and this is much more true in French: if the message received is full of spelling mistakes, assume that it is a fraud.
Hackers are cunning. But, apparently, they can’t write.
We will not ask them to translate smishingit could end badly for everyone…