Fraudsters have long been using mobile communications as an opportunity to cheat and take money, which is known to all subscribers, but not all of them remain vigilant. Moreover, new methods of fraud are being invented almost every day. To deprive you of money, cheaters use SMS messages, thanks to which tidy sums are debited from your account.
The easiest way to detect SMS fraud is to use an unknown number from which the message was sent. As a rule, people you know, when purchasing a new SIM card, in automatic mailing notify those whose numbers appear in their phone book about the change of their mobile phone number. As a last resort, sending a message from a new phone number, they will sign their first and last name. Scammers will not do anything of the kind. Therefore, any SMS sent from an unknown number should be treated with suspicion. Especially if you are required to take some action at the same time: open the sent media file, call or send a message to the specified short number, transfer money to a subscriber, supposedly your friend, who is in an unpleasant situation.
There is a very high probability of being caught by scammers during the holidays. They send out postcards that require you to install an app on your phone to view them. This program turns out to be an ordinary Trojan, thanks to which money is regularly debited from your account. In some cases, scammers manage to hack accounts on social networks and send SMS messages on behalf of your friends, which contain links to sites with supposedly interesting mobile applications. Of course, by following this link, you will receive viral software, thanks to which your account will be reset to zero in a matter of minutes. Before clicking on such links, contact your friends and ask if he really sent you this SMS message.
As for the offers to send an SMS message to a short number, before doing this, it will not be superfluous to ask on the Internet if these are scammers. MTS has a special service, and by sending a message “?” To the proposed short number, you can get information about the service, owner, support phone number and the amount that will be debited from you. Megafon subscribers using the USSD command "* 432 #" can also find out for free what the cost of a message to a given short number is. A similar service is available for Tele2 subscribers by the command "* 125 #".
Be attentive and critical of any information that you do not know the addressee. Pay attention to any inconsistencies with the traditionally used number. For example, Sberbank's Internet mailing list is carried out from the number 900. Recently, fraudsters began to send messages to clients of this bank with a request to indicate the details of bank cards from the numbers "SB900" and "9OO" (two capital letters o).
