Delete all these texts.
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Text attacks on Android and iPhone owners in America, Europe and elsewhere are totally out of control. This billion-dollar industry now defrauds millions of smartphone owners. The malicious technologies that execute these attacks originate in China but impersonate your local DMV or delivery firm. That’s why they’re ruthlessly effective.
“The threat of online scams and fraud is an ever-present reality in our connected world,” Google warns its users, “and the volume of scams is only growing. Nearly 60% of people globally have experienced a scam in the last year.”
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BioCatch says over the last 12 months, “SMS text-based phishing attacks also rose by a factor of 10.” That’s why Apple has changed its Messages app to filter out texts that might include dangerous links, preventing users from engaging with texts in any way.
And Google has done the same. “Scammers often use text messages to send malicious links designed to steal your information,” the tech giant warns. But now “if Google Messages suspects a message is spam, it will warn you when you click on any links within it and stop you from visiting the potentially harmful website.”
Delete texts if you see this.
Just as with Apple’s option for iPhone users to move flagged texts back into their Inbox, Google says it will lock down all these texts “unless you explicitly mark the message as ‘not spam’. And just like Apple, while filtering spam is important, the intent is also to capture dangerous scam texts in this same, widely deployed net.
Google has just confirmed “this protection is now available globally to all Google Messages users.” Attackers have proven so adept at bypassing networks defenses, only a platform-level technology solution can address this now.
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“While increased connectivity has certainly fueled this rise in scams,” Google warns, “the bigger shift is this: widespread access to cutting-edge technology is making scams more convincing and nefarious than ever before.”
It’s not enough to leave these texts on your phone, flagged as spam. You should delete them completely from your device. That’s the clear guidance from the FBI, and it’s worth following. Dangerous links don’t usually persist for long before they’re blocked, but keeping one just a tap away, especially if others use your phone, is a bad idea.