Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
One in three targeted by text message scam
A THIRD of text message users have received a scam attempt in the past six months, a watchdog found.
Of the 34%, some 7% had lost money, personal data or both to a fraudulent text, Which? said.
Facebook Messenger was the second most common platform for scams, with attempts on 16% of users, followed by Whatsapp at 10%.
Of those who received malicious messages, fake HMRC ones were most prevalent; 42% got them.
Other popular scams were competition wins (34%), injury claim queries (32%) and Paypal messages (29%).
They typically aim to trick people into clicking links or calling a number to disclose personal information.
Fraudsters also use number spoofing, which makes the recipient’s phone display the name of an organisation instead of a number and helps makes the fraudulent text appear official.
In January HMRC said it had stopped 90% of the most convincing scams reaching phones but Which? said the latest figures suggested there was “still work to do on this issue”.
Consumer rights editor Adam French said: “Firms must take action to introduce the systems needed to stop these messages reaching people’s devices.
“While we await action, it’s important that people remain as vigilant as possible.”
HMRC said it offers advice to the public on identifying fake messages, adding: “We have a dedicated team who work with internet service providers, other Government departments and law enforcement to identify, frustrate and close down fraudulent operations.”