Aug 26, 2024 Recognizing 'Smishing'

Aug. 26, 2024 - You may be familiar with phishing, but have you heard about smishing? Smishing is a type of phishing that comes in the form of SMS on a mobile device. These are prevalent throughout higher education, seen amongst several CSUs and originating from multiple sources.

Scammers can locate an individual's private phone number when it's posted to a public website's directory. Information Security actively investigates these threats for any patterns, collaborating with CSUCI's FBI liaison. Unfortunately, there are limits on what can be done to stop these scammers, so because of this, it is important for every person to be aware of signs to look out for when dealing with a potential SMS attack. These signs include:

• Messages appearing to come from friends, family, or even a work colleague, and coming from an unknown number
• Messages may include a request for more information such as an address for the purchase of gift cards, for example, for clients at work.

Many recipients believe the sender is who they say they are and fall for the scam, so it is important to take the time to verify who the sender is before sharing any identifying information.

For more information contact CSUCI's Information Security team at [email protected].