{"id":1921,"date":"2022-06-13T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/?p=1921"},"modified":"2025-10-23T02:41:19","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T02:41:19","slug":"text-message-scamming-smishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/13\/text-message-scamming-smishing\/","title":{"rendered":"Text message scamming: &#8220;Smishing&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"400\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/CartoonSmishing_AdobeStock_170245913-700x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Text message scamming: &quot;Smishing&quot;\" class=\"wp-image-1922 lazyload\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/CartoonSmishing_AdobeStock_170245913-700x400-1.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/CartoonSmishing_AdobeStock_170245913-700x400-1-300x171.jpg 300w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 700px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 700\/400;\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Your loved one may be watching for phishing scams on email, but now there are scams carried out by short message service (aka, texting). &#8220;Smishing&#8221; scams rose 58% in 2021. Nationwide they cost victims over $10 billion. Seniors are a prime target, as three out of five now own smartphones. While convenient, smartphones present new opportunities for getting scammed. Time to alert your relative to smishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smishers masquerade as businesses your loved one may already deal with: Amazon, Netflix, the bank, or the postal service. Typical ploys involve bogus claims of<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>a &#8220;shipping issue&#8221; (25% of smishing messages are delivery scams)<\/li><li>&#8220;problem with payment&#8221; method, or an invoice they say needs verifying<\/li><li>concerns about &#8220;suspicious activity on your account&#8221;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Before your loved one gets a scam text, counsel them:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Don&#8217;t reply to the text<\/strong>, even if it says to &#8220;text STOP&#8221; to be taken off the list. Any reply lets the scammer know the phone number is &#8220;responsive.&#8221; They can sell that valuable information to other con artists.<\/li><li><strong>Don&#8217;t call the number.<\/strong> Instead, go to the official website of the company to get its phone number. Call, and work with the company directly if there&#8217;s an actual problem to be solved.<\/li><li><strong>Don&#8217;t click on any links.<\/strong> It will likely go to a website that looks authentic but is simply set up to collect account numbers and logins. Or to download malware to harvest such information later.<\/li><li><strong>Copy the message and text it to 7726 (SPAM).<\/strong> There is no charge to do this. It will notify the phone carrier of the problem so they can investigate.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Ways to protect your loved one&#8217;s phone:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Check the settings on the mobile device<\/strong> and turn on spam protection.<\/li><li><strong>Talk to the phone carrier<\/strong> about its protective services. A &#8220;call-blocking&#8221; service can be extended to cover spam texts as well.<\/li><li><strong>Consider call-blocking apps.<\/strong> They identify and can filter out suspicious senders for texts <em>and<\/em> phone calls. The wireless phone trade association (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctia.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ctia.org<\/a>) has a list of apps for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctia.org\/consumer-resources\/how-to-stop-robocalls\/ios-robocall-blocking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Apple<\/strong><\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ctia.org\/consumer-resources\/how-to-stop-robocalls\/android-robocalls-blocking\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Android<\/strong><\/a> devices.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Is your loved one new to smartphones?<br><\/strong>There&#8217;s a lot to take in with new technology, and unfortunately, some of it involves learning precautions against bad actors. As the greater Cleveland experts in family caregiving, we at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/\">Careplan Care Managers<\/a><\/strong> hear some very sad stories about financial exploitation of older adults. If you are worried your relative may be vulnerable to a scammer, let&#8217;s talk about safety. Give us a call at 440.476.9534.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Your loved one may be watching for phishing scams on email, but now there are scams carried out by short message service (aka, texting). &#8220;Smishing&#8221; scams rose 58% in 2021. Nationwide they cost victims over $10 billion. Seniors are a prime target, as three out of five now own smartphones. While convenient, smartphones present new&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careplangcm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}