SMS indicated that she could avoid presenting herself in court by clicking on a link to pay the fine. A plausible scenario, she thought, since there are radars in her region and that she had already received a ticket earlier this year.
This text is a translation of an article by CTV News
But something was wrong.
“I said to myself,” What do you know? I’m going to look for Google to see if it’s a scam, “said Ms. Compton at CTV News from her home in Oshawa, Ontario.
A quick search confirmed his suspicions. Messages were a scam. She has published a Warning on Facebook.
“I almost got fooled, but I didn’t clicking the link,” she said. “I don’t know what would have happened if I had clicked on the link. I just blocked the number. “
The Competition Office of Canada indicates that this type scams are increasingly common and warns the Canadians against so -called “SMISHING” attacks.
SMISHING, which is a mixture of SMS and phishing terms, is to send fraudulent sms that seem to come from a government agency, a bank or a legitimate company. They often contain links which, if you click on it, can install malware or redirect yourself to false websites that steal your personal or financial information.
“We have seen an increase in this phenomenon for several years,” said Josephine Palumbo, assistant commissioner in charge of deceptive commercial practices at the competition office.
According to experts, false SMS were once distinguished by their bad grammar or spelling mistakes.
“Spelling mistakes were a revealing index, especially when people had to write these messages themselves, and often these were people whose English was not necessarily the mother tongue,” said Angus Lockhart, senior political analyst at The Dais at the Metropolitan University of Toronto.
One of the reasons why these scams could become more frequent or more difficult to detect is artificial intelligence (AI). Schools now use tools such as Chatgpt.
“Chatgpt spelling always perfectly, he never makes typing mistakes. Thus, anyone can now write in English consistent with perfect grammar, ”explains Mr. Lockhart. “You have to be much more careful, even if the message seems legitimate. »»
Jeff Horncastle, from the Canada Antifraude Center, explains that fraudsters also use AI to personalize fraudulent messages by looking for information on their potential victims on the Internet, as well as to automate their mass creation.
“Some messages may contain personal information about you in order to convince you more that it is a legitimate message,” added Horncastle, who specifies that his organization has in fact received fewer reports from Smishing this year compared to the first half of 2024.
These messages often convey a feeling of emergency, a tactic aimed at pushing the recipients to react before thinking. Experts invite people to take their time and check the source. They also recommend that they do not click on suspicious links and ignore SMS, even if you are asked to answer “stop” or “no”.
“When you receive a suspicious SMS, don’t forget that most legitimate organizations will never ask you to disclose personal information by email or SMS,” Palumbo told CTV News.
Current SMISHING scams include false reimbursements from the Canada Revenue Agency, Canada Post delivery updates and road toll notifications.
“Yesterday, I received an SMS pretending to come from a package delivery service that needed my information to make the delivery, when I don’t expect any packages,” said Ms. Compton.
SMISHING often aims to usurpation of identity, by targeting credit card numbers and other sensitive personal information.
Report the messages, says the competition office
The competition office advises people to transfer suspect SMS to 7726 (spam).
“This will allow your telephone operator to block future SMS from the same number,” said Ms. Palumbo.
John Horcastle of the Antifraude Center of Canada stressed that fraudsters go as far as including real government telephone numbers in their messages.
“The victim is looking for the phone number and says to himself:” Well, what do you know? This is the official arc number. It must be a legitimate message, right? “,” Said Mr. Horcastle.
“It’s just another method, another tactic used by fraudsters to convince you that this is an official message.”
As for Ms. Compton, these false SMS concerning gear contraventions are not the only attempts at fraud she was the victim this year. She also received calls from fraudsters pretending to be employees of RBC and Telus, whose numbers seemed legitimate on her screen.
“It is quite easy to be fooled,” she said ..