Last year alone, 14,261 incidents of phishing in Spain, according to INCIBE (National Cybersecurity Institute). It is estimated that in around 77% of cases, fake SMS are used in order to scam users and consumers. Now, from 20Bits we have been able to detect a new fraud what has as a direct protagonist to the Chinese online commerce application TEMU.
He phishing is a computer term related to a scam technique that consists of sending emails impersonating company identities or public organizations in order to collect information and data, usually banking, from the user. When it is an SMS, this is called smishingthus having a differentiation of the type of medium in which it is carried out. In this context, be careful, users, because in the next few days you may receive a text message on mobile phone which you have to pay attention to.
This is the new SMS scam with TEMU as the protagonist
This new scam consists of the following: you receive an SMS from dubious origin under the name of a person posing as a company recruiter. The message tries to explain to you that some agencies have recommended your experience and resume for the next task, “help TEMU merchants complete product reviews”.
In this sense, they promise a daily salary that varies between 200 euros and 5000 euros with instant payments. To find out more or accept the position, repeat the same pattern as other SMS scams: send a message on WhatsApp.
This type of smishing either phishing always has the same common denominator, try capture the user’s attention under the name of companies that existas we have been able to verify. However, there are always certain details that draw attention and should alert you. In general, although the names may be familiar, they come from phone numbers that do not correspond to the same country or they arrive from emails with mismatched domains with the company and even has unrecognizable terminology.
What is the objective behind these SMS
Usually in this type of scam You can find a link that invites you to click. Once you click, a Trojan or other type of malware can have access to your mobile phone. However, this time it simply asks you to send a message via WhatsApp.
What can you expect? Putting the focus in other similar scams You may start a conversation with the person who contacted you. In that case you can start ask from minor information such as name to more serious information such as banking information. It is even possible that this step will send you the mysterious link that takes you to a fraudulent page. For this reason, alwaysIt is very important to attend to the key points to avoid smishing:
- Be wary of suspicious messages that try to reward you or have excessive urgency.
- Don’t click on unknown links.
- Verify the identity of the sender by contacting the official channels of companies or banks.
- Do not share personal or financial information.
- Install protection on your mobile such as antivirus that blocks malicious links or numbers.
- Keep your device updated to protect against vulnerabilities.
- Act quickly if you fall into the trap and deactivate your bank account in case of financial data theft.
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