[Technology] Smishing

I know there have been some threads about spam texts, I didn't realise it has its own term 'Smishing' (as in SMS/fishing). Anyway, I got one today - a text telling me my paypal account is suspended and to click this link to reactivate it. Blah blah, not falling for that one.

Anyway, I will usually try to forward emails like this to the relevant company's security department, but wasn't sure what to do with texts, so looked into it and found that most phone providers allow a free text to 7726 (spells 'spam' on the number pad). I thought I'd share this with everyone in case others felt compelled.

Is that what "smishing" means? I thought it was a South African word meaning "great".

There is also vishing (voice fishing)for when the fraud/fishing is done over the phone. In my last job myself and our data manager had to talk about data security to staff as part of mandatory training, we put the phrase "phishing, smishing and vishing" into the talk as a tongue twister to amuse ourselves.