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SMS Phishing is here! Beware!

April 26th 2009 in Tech

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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.

sms phishing

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.



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6 comments to...
“SMS Phishing is here! Beware!”
    Avatar
    Kumar Chetan Sharma

    EZ baby, u can get 10 free sms, u can fake any one’s number, u just need to open a developer account with any sms gateway, and they even provide you working scripts, you can send flash messages too,
    ch33r5


    Reply
    Avatar
    Sunil

    Guyz.. Dont fall into the prank of msgs like Congragulations you won some prize of 2lac contact alex etc.. This is all prank at last they will say to deposit a sum of 50,000 to get the money and from no where they gonna vaish taking your money.. BEWARE!! dont entertain such idiotic people who dont know to earn in a right way..


    Reply
    Avatar
    Rahul

    That’s what… there must be some mechanism to report such messages. The carriers must wake up.


    Reply
    Avatar
    anonimus

    hey even i got one saying i won 200,000 GDP. they told me that the money is comming in cash to India on 11th may 2009 and dat i have to clear the customs by paying 400 pounds. a man called me on 11th morning saying that he have arrived in delhi and asked me to pay 400 pounds. when i said i dnt hav that much money he offered to pay 200 pounds and asked me to pay the remaining. and when i enquired the details he got angry. i gave him an offer saying that if he clears the customs by paying 400 pounds and i get the winning amnt i will pay him back 600 pounds to him but he denied. when i kept on telling dat i dnt have money he got pissed offed and asked me y i cant take from my parents and others. i said no each time i say no he gets more angry dat confirmed me dat it is fake. i even told him that he can pay the customs from the winning amount if he really wants to bt he always denies.


    Reply
    Avatar
    V.Chidambaram

    Why don’t you people arrest this fake group such as Hastings and one SmithPeter in Delhi who con people and gyp money out of them. Is the police incompetent or just letting these people carry on.


    Reply
    Avatar
    Sophia

    i have received loads of emails n texts on both of my cell phone… vodafone n reliance network…i get almost 2 every month from every possible scammer (UKpowerball, live.com n dont even remeber)… n wont beat it, i've received the phone call aswell… it was an ISD number (connected with some internet ) with a heavy south american accent stating my cheque is ready and i i have to send a demand draft of around 500GBP for the courier by which they r sending the chq (the handling cost)..

    The scam is that – some or the other person will be trapped in it and will send the DD to get those 700K GBP. and if you google it, scams of ukpowerball or live.com or the email subject line, you'll see so many victims of this.


    Reply

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Rahul Sarin

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I’ve started my journey but I don’t know my destination. I'm ...Clueless.

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