“Hi mom, my phone is broken…”: watch out for this wave of Smishing

You know the phishingthis phishing practice that rages by email intended to extract personal information from you and, in the end, the sounding and stumbling currency. Its variant by SMS has the sweet name of Smishingand therefore consists of sending messages intended to scam you. Beware of its latest version, which plays on feelings. Because, as we have noticed ourselves, a great classic – which was identified in 2022 and had its hour of glory in the fall of 2024 – signs its return to the mobiles.

“Hello mom, my phone is broken, here is my number. Can you send me a message via WhatsApp?”do we receive as well. The message is accompanied by a link that will invite you to continue the discussion and, as always in these cases, that you are more or less subtly asked for money. The opportunity for us to recall that in the event of receipt of suspicious message, the best reflexes (if you are a mom yourself) remains to contact your child on his usual number without click on the famous link received by SMS, then report the scam on the platform 33700or transfer the message directly to number 33700.

As we recalled in this Article dedicated to Smishingthis type of practices is increasing sharply, and it benefits from the fact that users are much more easily tempted to open an SMS than an email, drowned among many. If Google Messagesfor example, or some smartphones manufacturers, multiply efforts to fight against spam and unwanted messages (see our capture on a dark background), these waves of Smishing most often pass between the meshes of the net. It is therefore necessary, again and again, to be vigilant when receiving messages from unknown numbers!