Among a swathe of Covid-19 online scams an SMS-phishing attack has been used to fake text messages - typically to link to a malicious site and ask a person to share personal information that can be used to commit identity fraud.
An example of such a text message has been posted on Twitter.
The NHS has written specific guidelines on how they will contact people in the Test & Trace scheme.
Ben Tuckwell, district manager UK & Ireland at RSA Security said: “Fraudsters are known to thrive in times of crisis. With millions of people around the country working from home, in many cases distracted by young children, the truth is that they are sitting ducks for clever and timely phishing attacks.
“This particular smishing (SMS-phishing) attack makes great use of social engineering by exploiting the fact the track and trace services are making headlines and there is a generally heightened sense of fear; in all likelihood, at least some people will be fooled into thinking that the text message is legitimate.
"Consumers can protect themselves by acting smart and pausing to consider each communication they receive while remembering the three key smishing don’ts – don’t respond to texts from unknown or unusual numbers; don’t click on any links in text messages, and don’t share any banking information, usernames or passwords or other personal details after receiving a text message, unless you can verify who you are speaking with.”
With the manual track-and-trace high on the current coronavirus dominated news agenda, questions remain about the NHS contact tracing ap ..
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