In today’s tech-filled world, there are a lot of neat safety features looking out for people, but unfortunately, there are also a lot of new and intricate ways for people to get scammed.
Scams and phishing schemes take place in all sorts of formats these days, from emails to fake websites. However, many would argue that one of the most frequent types of scams comes in the form of fake messages. Scam texts have become almost a part of people’s everyday inboxes, and they’ve become even more elaborate over time. To keep yourself safe, here are two different red flag-raising texts you should ignore, as they’re likely sent by scammers.
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1. Enable & Set Up A Passcode
Believe it or not, there are a lot of iPhone users who walk around without a passcode set up on their device. These are often people who worry they might not remember their passcode or find it more convenient to simply open their phone once they pick it up. Though it's convenient, it's also unsafe.
"The number one best thing you can do to secure your phone is to enable your passcode and FaceID - it might seem inconvenient, but if you don't, you are leaving a great feature of the iPhone unused, and that is full disk encryption on a non-default key," explains data privacy lawyer Alia Luria. "Your iPhone will always encrypt the disk, but if you don't enable a passcode, it will use a default key, which is essentially like offering up the password 'password' to hackers. Enable a 6-digit passcode for better security."
2. Turn Off Auto-Join For Wi-Fi
One of the biggest risks that people take when they're out and about with their iPhones or other devices like laptops is public Wi-Fi. Though it's nice to use the internet wherever you want, public Wi-Fi comes with a lot of safety risks, and there can be a lot of untrustworthy networks, which is also why you should make sure your phone's not automatically connecting to them.
"Public Wi-Fi networks, especially in airports, diners, or hotels, are extremely easy to exploit," says cybersecurity pro Wes Anderson. "Attackers can intercept unencrypted traffic or impersonate legitimate networks to steal login credentials. Using a trusted VPN or relying on your cellular connection instead significantly reduces the attack surface. I'd avoid logging in to my bank or other high-risk platforms in those situations if I can wait until I return home."
2. Texts Claiming To Be From Your Bank
Another popular form of red flag-raising texts is phishing ones that pretend to be coming from an important service in your life, like your bank, health insurance agency, postal delivery service, etc. These texts often contain messages that appear to be "urgent" and encourage you to click on a faulty link, which are two big red flags.
"One of the most common scams right now is smishing, which is essentially phishing through text messages," explains tech pro Somya Singh. "People receive a message that looks like it's from a bank, delivery service, or even a government agency, saying there's a problem with their account or package. The message includes a link and creates urgency so the user clicks quickly, but the link usually leads to a fake site designed to steal login credentials or financial information."
