{"id":2412898,"date":"2025-03-12T17:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-warns-americans-to-immediately-delete-smishing-from-their-phones\/"},"modified":"2025-03-12T17:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-03-12T21:53:16","slug":"fbi-warns-americans-to-immediately-delete-smishing-from-their-phones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-warns-americans-to-immediately-delete-smishing-from-their-phones\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Warns Americans to Immediately Delete \u2018Smishing\u2019 from Their Phones"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffbi-warns-americans-to-immediately-delete-smishing-from-their-phones%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2412898&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sounding the alarm.<\/p>\n<p>Despite sounding like some innocuous <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/tiktok-study-reveals-disturbing-self-harm-trends-fcc-chair-gives-ominous-warning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">TikTok trend<\/a>, the FBI is issuing a stern warning &mdash; and some directives &mdash; to Americans about waves of &ldquo;smishing&rdquo; attacks that are targeting swaths of people.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple outlets are reporting that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/pam-bondi-accuses-fbi-lying-delivering-partial-epstein-files-sets-24-hour-deadline-delivery-complete-collection\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the FBI<\/a> has issued a fresh, new warning about &ldquo;smishing,&rdquo; after having first identified <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ic3.gov\/PSA\/2024\/PSA240412\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the problem<\/a> in March of 2024.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Smishing&rdquo; is a combination of the cybersecurity term &ldquo;phishing&rdquo; and &ldquo;SMS,&rdquo; or &ldquo;short message service,&rdquo; which is akin to standard text messaging.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/fbi-warning-scam-smishing-texts-delete-phones-2043344\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newsweek<\/a>, this new wave of &ldquo;smishing&rdquo; has already &ldquo;exploited more than 10,000 newly registered domains, using fake payment demands to steal personal and financial information.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p> <script type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\tif ( getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"stnvideo\").remove() \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>These &ldquo;smishing&rdquo; messages will typically all follow the same &ldquo;script,&rdquo; with the most recent wave being characterized by sending cell phone users a message saying that they have an unpaid toll due.<\/p>\n<p>(This writer has personally received a bevy of these messages despite primarily driving in my neighborhood only &mdash; no toll roads anywhere.)<\/p>\n<p>Given that not everyone deals with toll roads, the New York Post <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/03\/12\/business\/fbi-warns-iphone-android-users-delete-smishing-texts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reports<\/a> that these &ldquo;smishing&rdquo; scams have grown to emulate delivery services as well.<\/p>\n<p>As for what Americans need to do about this scam spam, it&rsquo;s a rather simple solution.<\/p>\n<p>Per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/zakdoffman\/2025\/03\/11\/fbi-warning-delete-new-texts-on-your-phone\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forbes<\/a>, the FBI is telling any and all iPhone and Android users to &ldquo;delete any smishing texts received.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Trade Commission also issued <a href=\"https:\/\/consumer.ftc.gov\/consumer-alerts\/2025\/01\/got-text-about-unpaid-tolls-its-probably-scam\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a warning<\/a>, telling users (emphasis added) <em><strong>don&rsquo;t click on any links.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Not only is the scammer trying to steal your money, but if you click the link, they could get your personal info (like your driver&rsquo;s license number) &mdash; and even steal your identity,&rdquo; the FTC posted at the start of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>So prevalent is this issue that the FTC has actually <a href=\"https:\/\/consumer.ftc.gov\/articles\/how-recognize-and-report-spam-text-messages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">maintained<\/a> an entire page dedicated to helping users identify the increasingly sophisticated scam attacks.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from not clicking any links, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/damning-gop-report-exposes-biden-harris-ftc-targeted-elon-musks-x\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the FTC<\/a> also recommends reaching out to local authorities directly just in case there <em>is&nbsp;<\/em>an outstanding toll due, as well as to learn how to filter, block, and report such spam.<\/p>\n<p>For those blessed enough not to have been hit by any of these yet, the &ldquo;smishing&rdquo; scams all follow the same script.<\/p>\n<p>A serious-sounding message warns users that they have some sort of outstanding debt, be it an unpaid toll or delivery. The message, which will typically come from a non-official sounding sender (i.e. from xyzabc123@hotmail.com instead from, say, &ldquo;dmv.gov&rdquo;), will then provide links to help expedite the process by sending them to a veritable network of scams &mdash; this is where those aforementioned 10,000 domains can come into play.<\/p>\n<p>You can forward these scam messages to 7726 (SPAM), before deleting them to help your wireless provider better root out the offending numbers.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script> \t     \t\t\t\t\t\t     \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script>console.log(\"ad slot (BA1)\")<\/script> \t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sounding the alarm. Despite sounding like some innocuous TikTok trend, the FBI is issuing a stern warning \u2014 and some directives \u2014 to Americans about waves of \u201csmishing\u201d attacks that are targeting swaths of people. Multiple outlets are reporting that the FBI has issued a fresh, new warning about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2412899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Phone.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2412898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Phone.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2412898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2412898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2412899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2412898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2412898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2412898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}