Security News > 2020 > July > Three UK: We're sending you this SMS to warn you not to pay attention to unsolicited texts

A subset of Three UK users have received an SMS message warning them about text message-based spam - complete with a shortlink and textual urgings to click it and learn more.

"They send an unsolicited out-of-the-blue SMS which asks you to 'click' on a link. When checked out in a sandboxed environment this goes to an insecure http-only page which warns of suspicious text messages and a video telling recipients not to tap on any links. Awesome!".

As even Three itself warns, you really shouldn't pay attention to smishing messages: "If you've received a suspicious message, don't click on any links. Get in touch with the company it's supposed to be from, first. They'll let you know if it's genuine or not. Until then, don't click on any links or follow any of the instructions."

Message sender names can easily be spoofed, as one-time Lulzsec chap Jake Davis explained when UK.gov started bombarding innocent Britons with SMS messages about the pandemic earlier this year.

A mildly irritated Three spokesperson told us: "We regularly and proactively contact our customers with guidance on how to avoid smishing fraud. This includes linking to a genuine website where we communicate about our safety measures. We inform all our customers that the website links we use, and are therefore safe to click on, are 3.uk and three.co.uk. More than 500,000 customers have read the guidance and now have a better understanding of how to protect themselves as a result."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2020/07/06/three_uk_sma/