Smishing? Bless You. (No, Wait—It’s Worse Than That)

You’ve probably heard of phishing — those shady emails trying to trick you into clicking the wrong link or giving up your password. But what about smishing?

It’s not a typo. It’s SMS phishing — text messages designed to scam you. And it’s getting bolder. These scams often pretend to be your bank, a delivery service, even your boss ("Hey, can you grab some gift cards real quick?"). The goal is the same as phishing: trick you into clicking a malicious link, handing over sensitive info, or responding to a fake request.

So how do you spot smishing before you get reeled in?

Here’s the 3-second checklist:

• Too urgent? Too weird? If the message is pushy, alarming, or just doesn’t feel right, pause. Scammers thrive on urgency.

• Who’s it really from? Legit services rarely text from random numbers. And your CEO isn’t buying Google Play cards from a Walgreens in Tulsa.

• Link looks shady? Don’t tap it. Hovering isn’t a thing on your phone, so if the link looks like a garbled mess or has a sketchy domain, it’s best left untouched.

Smishing can be hard to filter out with tech tools alone — so awareness is key. That’s why we coach our clients on how to spot this stuff, before someone buys $500 in “emergency” crypto codes.

Got a suspicious message? Don’t engage — forward it to your IT team (👋 hi, that’s us!) and we’ll take it from there.