Phishing and smishing.

In February of 2025, the Internal Revenue Service announced its yearly list of popular

scams and schemes that were seen throughout the previous calendar year as a warning to

Americans are about the ones who use to steal identities, finances, and other personal

information. Examples of ways that people can be scammed and ways that people try to

scam include, but are not limited to, being coerced by fake people online, misleading

online information, and false fuel tax credit claims, and improper household employment claims.

For the focus of this blog, there will be a microscopic view into the area of phishing and

smishing. The term phishing refers to when someone sends an email claiming to be someone

else in search of money or anything that can be used against the other person. In common

practice, this has been going on since the 1990s with ties to hackers trying to steal credit card

information and commit other online crimes on the newly created World Wide Web.

There are many different techniques used in the world of phishing, a common one is changing

domain names, which leads the individual to believe that they are being contacted by a trusted

entity when in reality it is a scam artist waiting to phish all your information away.

Another common example is the urgent message technique, which involves the perpetrator

sending an important notice such as "Pay tolls now or receive a $500 fine." This tricks people

into again, giving up personal information that can be used against them or to steal their finances.

The term "smishing" comes from the combination of the word phishing and SMS (text messages);

this is phishing with text messages. This is a relatively more dangerous form of phishing because of the accessibility that most people have to phones, as more people have phones, phone numbers are

easier to get hold of to send these texts. A text message is sent from a random number pretending

to be someone or a company, and attached is a link, once this link is clicked, the information sharing starts.

Tactics among smishers are similar to those of phishers, fear and urgency messages, posing as fake

individuals or companies looking for information, or fake delivery messages like "UPS: Your package

is on hold. Track it here: [insert phishing link]" and once the link is clicked there is no going back.

Ways that people can avoid these scams can be simple or complex, and still have the same

effectiveness when it comes to the outcome. The most usual ways to avoid scams are to be aware of

them, and educating yourself on the ways that people scam each other can help show when you are

being scammed. This includes tips such as not clicking suspicious links or downloading

unknown files, verifying the sender’s numbers or email, and blocking suspicious numbers or

messengers.

Technological pursuits have also been used to combat this; most recently, AI has been implemented

by some companies to send harmless messages over text and email that look like phishing messages,

so that employees can better spot them and learn what to look for. Some phone carriers also have

spam filters that block spam messages and smishing texts from potential victims. Two-factor authentication

has also become a popular way of stopping the leaks of information among people, this requires two

forms of identification or authorization for a person to get into sensitive windows or applications that

could hold important information, such as emails, gaming systems, and computers.

There are many different ways that criminals and scam artists try to take information, Phishing

and smishing being the most common and accessible, making it the hardest to combat, However,

technology advancements and growing knowledge about the subject have led people to become

more aware of what can potentially happen if not too careful. Education and awareness are the

arch nemeses to phishing and smishing; the only thing needed is a well-informed population.

For more information, contact The Center for Financial, Legal, and Tax Planning, P.C. at (618) 997-3436.