Spam text messages are a cyberattack type that all Australians, and in fact the entire world, is facing more commonly than ever before. Adept IT Solutions continues to monitor the influx of spam text messages circulating around Australia, as we look to provide guidance on how best to react and respond to it.
What is a Spam Text Message?
Spam text messages have become incredibly invasive, posing significant cybersecurity threats to individuals, as well as businesses of all sizes. these unsolicited messages often serve as vectors for phishing attacks, malware distribution, and other fraudulent activities.
They not only disrupt daily operations but can also compromise sensitive data, leading to severe financial and reputational damage. For businesses looking to fortify their cybersecurity defences, partnering with IT Support and Managed Service Providers can be an essential strategy in mitigating the risks associated with spam text messages and ensuring a robust, secure communication infrastructure.
Spam Text Messages in Australia
In the last few years especially, there has been a significant increase of spam text messages, primarily due to the unfortunate success rates of this type of scam. According to Scam Statistics Page on the Australian Government’s National Scam Watch website, there has been over $134 million worth of reported losses from scams in 2024 so far, as of August 1st.
This has come about through a total of over 140,000 reported scams. Of these 140,000 scams, the top contact method reported was through phones, with over 55,000 reported incidents in just the first 6 months of 2024 alone. This is looking to keep pace with 2023’s results, with the Australian Government’s National Scam Watch reporting a total of 110,000 spam text message incidents in their 2023 targeting scams report.
Of these 140,000 reported scams, the top 3 were investment scams, romance scams, and phishing attempts. Spam text messages are, unfortunately, a fantastic way for malicious individuals to take advantage of unsuspecting, and often vulnerable recipients. Considering the top 3 most popular types of communication, scam text messages are utilised quite extensively to trick users into thinking that the correspondence is legitimate.
Spam Text Message Examples
An effective first step for individuals looking to combat the effectiveness of spam text messages, is knowing what they look like in the first place. Let’s take a quick look over some commonly seen spam text message examples.
Clickable Link Spam Text Message
One of the most common forms of spam text message is through clickable links. Commonly posing as official organisations, such as the Australian Tax Offices, Government Agencies or even the Lotto. The aim for these cyber criminals is to make the text message look as believable as possible, whilst making the contents of the message extremely desirable for people to be tricked into clicking on them.
Personal Information Spam Text Message
The main reason for these kinds of spam text messages working, is that they trigger emotional responses from recipients to the point that they feel like they absolutely have to click on links provided, or open attachments, even sending back text responses. Claims of being the winner of money, giveaways or holidays are just some of the ways that scammers trick people into clicking their malicious messages.
How to Respond to Spam Text Messages?
If you see any SMS message that looks odd, make sure to delete the text message before clicking on any links. Additionally, you can block the phone number, and, on some mobile devices, mark the SMS message as spam. When this is done the SMS message will be removed from the messages you normally see when opening the Messages application.
Make sure you only give your phone number out to legitimate people and services. It is safe practice to question any website, email or SMS message that prompts for personal information or has suspicious hyperlinks.
Protect yourself with anti-virus applications. Did you know that you can put anti-virus software onto your phone? Adept IT Solutions can assist you in finding a suitable anti-virus solution, that can assist with filtering SPAM SMS messages.
What to do if you Clicked on a Spam Text Message Link
So, you’ve accidentally, or even been tricked into clicking on a spam text message link. You now know that you have made a mistake. But what do you do? How do you respond?
- The first step, as hard as it is, is not to panic. Staying calm to avoid making any hasty decisions that could further compromise your device is extremely important.
- Disconnecting from the internet is another tip that can prevent further damage. Temporarily disconnecting the internet can stop further data being sent or received, in an attempt to limit the overall damage.
- If the link you have opened begins by asking for personal information, such as your date of birth, license numbers, address etc, it is extremely important that you do not enter any information.
- Changing your passwords is a fantastic step when attempting to prevent the amount of damage. If you have in fact been tricked into sending personal information, immediately changing your passwords across your accounts will assist.
- Monitoring your accounts following these steps is highly important in the time frame after a spam text message has affected your system. Keep a close eye on your financial statements, bank accounts, emails, and other linked accounts on your affected device to ensure that there is no continuing harm as a result of the incident.
How Adept IT Solutions can Help with Spam Text Messages
Adept IT Solutions is well equipped to assist you if you have accidently clicked on something malicious, including fraudulent emails and SMS messages.
Adept IT Solutions Managed IT Support can minimise any downtime your organisation may face due to malicious attacks. Our preventative maintenance system and next-generation firewalls will also minimise any potential threats before they have the ability to affect your system.
If you believe you may have compromised your devices in error, at the hands of a scam attempt, our dedicated team at Adept IT Solutions would love to assist. A leading provider of IT Support in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, The Hunter and Sydney areas, we are well equipped and experienced in such matters.
Please feel free to contact Adept IT Solutions on 1300 423 378 (ADEPT) or email us at info@adept-it.com.au.
