Canada's federal government telecom regulator urged Canadians to be vigilant over their cellphones as more phishing scams through text messages are on the rise.
Phishing scams sent as text messages are substantially on the rise in the North American country, Global News reports quoting the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Shift From Email to Text Messages
Unsolicited or spam messages through email remain the dominant type of spam, the CRTC said. But the telecom regulator noted a shift appears to be happening in the category of phishing messages.
Microsoft Support defines phishing as an online attack to steal the victims' money or identities by manipulating the victims to reveal their personal information. This attack originates from websites pretending to be legitimate.
Online thefts pretend to be legitimate companies and present as friends or acquaintances of the targeted victims by sending fake messages that contain a link to a phishing website.
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Most Common
CRTC said a total of 2,157 spam texts were reported to the spam reporting center from Jan. 1 until Oct. 18. Some 4,050 email spam and 32.826 complaints of unsolicited calls were also recorded during the same period.
Fifty-four percent of the spam texts reported to the center were phishing, 18% of these were not determined due to insufficient information from the complainant, 17% were identified as affiliate and commercial marketing messages, and five percent were other types of scams.
Of all the phishing through texts, the telecom regulator said, the most common were attempts to present themselves as representatives of big companies. Telecom and streaming services providers were the favorite companies used by scammers.
In some instances, scammers also impersonate government and financial institutions, the CRTC said.
Alarming
The most disconcerting, according to a spokesperson for the telecom regulator, are reports about text messages of extortion with threats of violence, including a threat to life.
The spokesperson said that other agencies have also reported the rise of the same violent text messages.
Dark Web
Internet criminals usually acquire Dark Web telephone numbers and personal information.
The dark web, according to CSO Asean, is a part of the Internet that is not visible on search engines as web owners block web crawlers from search engines like Google, DuckDuckGo, Bing, and others. These sites are not viewable using a standard browser. To access the dark web, a browser called Tor is needed.
If the information has reached the dark web, that means it has been hacked, the spokesperson said.
Tell-tale Signs to Watch
CRTC said there are several tell-tale signs every Canadian has to watch carefully. These signs include the following:
- the message is asking for sensitive information
- the person sending the message impersonates people or companies you know
- the message contains spelling and grammar mistakes
- the message asks for money in advance
- the message uses tactics to scare or intimidate the receiver
- the message is too good to be true
If a person has been contacted by a scammer or received suspicious messages, report it immediately to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, even if the suspected scammer was not successful, too - (antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/report-signalez-eng.htm or 1-888-495-8501).
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