Fraudsters spam out scams via SMS text messages

Have you received an SMS message, seemingly from Apple, on your mobile phone telling you that you have won a prize in a contest?

SophosLabs researcher Onur Komili told Naked Security that he was browsing his Facebook newsfeed this weekend, when he saw a friend – let’s call him Freddie – post a screenshot of the text message.

Seven of Freddie’s friends in the Vancouver region also reported that they had received the exact same text message. A quick search on the net found a number of people had received the same spammed-out SMS message.

Things really piqued Onur’s interest, however, when he himself then received it on his iPhone!

Congratulations, Your entry into our contest last month made you a WINNER! Goto [LINK] to claim your prize! You have 24 hours to claim

Although the phone number it was apparently sent from was different from the one that his friend had received, Onur recognised the same dodgy link.

Because, of course, that’s not a…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.