SMS Phishing is here! Beware!
If email phishing scams were not enough, here comes the new breed of phishing attacks – right into your phone! Yes, my friends. SMS Phishing is here in India and I have the proof of it right in the message inbox of my phone.
The first time I came to know of this scam was when my friend received a text message on his phone a week back, congratulating him on winning a lottery. Since he’s not too tech-savvy, he sought my opinion. The moment he read out the contents of the SMS to me, I knew it was a scam. I asked him to send me a screenshot.
Here are the contents of the SMS :
Sender : TMGUINNESS
SMS :
GUINNESS AWARD PROMOTION
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
This is to inform you that your personal cell phone have won a prize money of 700,000.00 GREAT BRITISH POUNDS for the 2009 Splash promotion which is Organized on 10th April 2009 by G.A.P.UK. Contact our agent in Manchester for more information Agent Name: Dr.David
E-Mail:s.g.t.davidess04@live.com
Tel:+44 871 234 4378
Time passed and I forgot all about it until yesterday I received a similar message on my cellphone!
Sender : TM-Treasury
SMS :
Congraulation!!! You has won 200,000.00 GBPounds in 2009 (SHELL) Mobile draw. To claim your prize call Dr.Alex:+447031868871 or e-mail spdc69@hotmail.com
While My friend received his message on the Vodafone network, I got it on the BSNL network. The scam message I received appears to be the latest attempt. People are falling prey to this scam as is evident from a simple search on Google :
guiness award promotion Complaints – 2009 splash promotion
It is quite clear that scammers have their own SMS gateways up and running and are sending out these mass SMS’s in order to lure people. Since these attacks are new, I don’t think there is any mechanism set up by any carrier in India for us to file a phishing report. All reputable email providers have options to report the email as a scam but it’s time now that cellphone network operators pull up their socks, work along similar lines and bring in some effective measures to safeguard their customers.

“SMS Phishing is here! Beware!”