What Is Smishing?
A text message can carry the same trick as a phishing email.
Free video lesson · 1:11
What Is Smishing?
Phishing Awareness for Beginners
Music: “Thinking Music” by Kevin MacLeod. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
A text message can carry the same trick as a phishing email.
Read the video transcript
Smishing means phishing through a text message. The small screen does not make the request more trustworthy. A scammer can use a short text to send you toward a fake website.
Imagine a delivery text saying your parcel is waiting and you owe a small fee. You have ordered something recently, so the story feels possible. That coincidence is not proof the message is genuine.
The link might ask for your card details or a password. Even a tiny delivery fee can be bait for collecting information that is much more valuable than the fee itself.
Leave the text’s link alone. Open the delivery company’s app you already use, or check the order through the shop’s real website. Look for the parcel information there.
If the text is suspicious, use your phone’s report-junk option where available. Do not reply to an unknown scam sender, even to ask them to stop. You can check your parcel without joining their conversation.
For another clear example, watch What Is Vishing? Then try How Do You Report Phishing?
The short answer
Smishing means phishing through a text message. The small screen does not make the request more trustworthy. A scammer can use a short text to send you toward a fake website.
A simple example
Imagine a delivery text saying your parcel is waiting and you owe a small fee. You have ordered something recently, so the story feels possible. That coincidence is not proof the message is genuine.
The link might ask for your card details or a password. Even a tiny delivery fee can be bait for collecting information that is much more valuable than the fee itself.
Leave the text’s link alone. Open the delivery company’s app you already use, or check the order through the shop’s real website. Look for the parcel information there.
If the text is suspicious, use your phone’s report-junk option where available. Do not reply to an unknown scam sender, even to ask them to stop. You can check your parcel without joining their conversation.
Put it into practice
- Leave an unexpected text link unopened.
- Check a delivery or account through the app or website you already use.
- Use the phone’s reporting option where available instead of replying to a suspicious sender.
Check your understanding
You really are waiting for a parcel. Does that prove a text requesting a small fee is genuine?
Answer
No. A scam can match something happening in your life by coincidence. Check the order through your own trusted route.
Explore next
Follow the free video course one question at a time. Teams can practise these habits through security training. For the cryptography protecting your systems, explore a cryptography audit.