(DailyDig.com) – No one needs the added anxiety of discovering that someone has been secretly texting their relatives, friends, or total strangers. Life is already full of enough worries.
Someone who doesn’t have physical access to a target’s phone may nevertheless transmit a message via text, pretending to be them. Hackers employ this method, which is called SMS spoofing, to send fake text messages.
To pull off SMS spoofing, one must change the sender ID of their text message so that it seems to have come from another number. Cybercriminals can alter the sender ID to mimic a family member, friend, or even a real business.
Theft of personal information and other forms of fraud are possible outcomes of its unlawful usage. In order to trick their victims into divulging sensitive information, downloading malicious files, or clicking on links, scammers use a mix of familiarity and a sense of urgency in their texts.
Cybercriminals often utilize phony sender IDs to send urgent-sounding text messages in an effort to get their victims to click on a link that would steal their financial or personal information or install malware on their phones. In addition, they pose as a trustworthy or well-known business in an effort to trick their victim into paying a fraudulent invoice.
Scammers not only steal money or property from their victims, but they may also send damaging messages that affect their reputation or relationships with others.
Hackers may take advantage of a vulnerability in Apple devices to send malicious SMS messages, where the iMessage server will then return user-specific information, such as photos or text messages, to the sender. The user could activate the flaw even if they do not open the sent message. Furthermore, cybercriminals might infect a user’s phone with harmful malware by sending them via a text message.
In most cases, hackers rely on the user’s interaction with the SMS message to sneak malicious malware onto the device, in addition to particular vulnerabilities.
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