What are phishing and smishing?

What are phishing and smishing?

Phishing is when a scammer sends an email designed to lure a victim into sharing personal information – like their address, date of birth or bank details – or clicking a malicious link.

And smishing is the same thing, but via an SMS, WhatsApp or other mobile message service.

Scammers have ways to make these messages appear to come from someone you trust – like a friend, family member or financial or health provider. They know this makes it more likely they’ll get a response.

Learn to stay safe. Discover what a smishing attack might look like and how to protect yourself by answering this question:

You receive an SMS that asks you to enter a one-time passcode for an online transaction on your Credit Card, but you haven't made an online transaction today. The SMS includes a number to call if you don't recognise this transaction

What should you do?

A. Assume it’s just a mistake and ignore the message

B. Reply to the SMS to confirm it’s been sent in error

C. Call the number provided to say you don’t recognise the transaction

D. Don’t reply – instead, call your  Credit Card fraud team using the number on their website or the back of your card

The correct answer is D

The phone number in the SMS is fake and the scammer wants you to call it. Please don’t!

If you did, you’d probably be asked for personal details like your address and date of birth that the scammer could use to access your Credit Card account. you might even be asked for other financial information like your bank account number, sort code and balance amount.

It’s important to let your Credit card company know that fraud has been attempted on your account, so they can make sure it’s secure and give you support.

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