Smishing definition

Smishing is a cyberattack that uses misleading text messages to deceive victims. The goal is to trick you into believing that a message has arrived from a trusted person or organization, and then convincing you to take action that gives the attacker exploitable information (like bank account login credentials, for example) or access to your mobile device.

Smishing is a text-message-centric variation of the email-based phishing scams that have been around since the 1990s. But people are often less watchful for suspicious messages on their phones than on their computers: they’re more likely to open a potentially suspicious text message than an email message, and their personal devices generally lack the type of security available on corporate PCs. This pernicious new take on an old trick is becoming increasingly widespread.