Smishing

Our buddy Cole is a pretty smart guy. That’s why, when he got a random text telling him he’d won a trip for two to Jamaica and all he had to do was click on a link, he wasn’t buying it for a second.

“It’s smishing,” he told us when he showed us the text. “It’s what?” we replied, thinking a trip to Jamaica sounds pretty good right about now. Then Cole explains to us that “smishing,” a combination of “SMS” and “phishing,” is when dodgy companies send out scammy text messages to random people in an effort to get them to share their personal info. Sometimes they use the promise of wondrous prizes, like with Cole and his trip to Jamaica. Sometimes they use threats, like sending a text saying someone’s going to get fined $1,000 if they don’t go to some website and verify their info.

It’s like identity theft clickbait in text message form.