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Hacking. Disinformation. Surveillance. CYBER is Motherboard's podcast and reporting on the dark underbelly of the internet.
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The message typically mentions that the person’s bill was paid, and that there’s “a little gift for you” and a link with a suspicious looking URL.According to The Verge, scammers are targeting especially Verizon customers. “Verizon is aware that bad actors are sending spam text messages to some customers which appear to come from the customers' own number,” a Verizon spokesperson said. “Our team is actively working to block these messages, and we have engaged with U.S. law enforcement to identify and stop the source of this fraudulent activity. Verizon continues to work on behalf of the customer to prevent spam texts and related activity.”Most of the VICE employees who got the message are Verizon customers, but some of them were customers of Spectrum, an ISP that piggybacks on the Verizon network.SMS phishing, or smishing, is a years-old scam. And there is some anecdotal data suggesting the problem is getting worse. Last month, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team or CERT, a US government organization that analyzes cyber threats and publishes information and advisories to help users and companies to protect themselves, warned that there could be more phishing and smishing “In this time of heightened geopolitical tension,” referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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