COVID19 SMS Scams - what’s the angle here

[jonamv8]

Received this earlier:



No link to click or fine to pay, it’s clearly false but location used is correct.

I’ve had no visitors apart from couriers and I’m pretty sure the Police would be turning up in person to enforce if they had evidence, not an SMS from my local NHS.

What’s the angle?

[sicarumba]

Is the sender hoping you panic and call them back on their premium rate number?

[Defcon5]

Was it from a number or a word CLI? If the former is guess it’s a whopping charge to reply protesting your innocence

[Carl_Manchester]

apart from the obvious i would be wary of a follow up text message indicating a fine to pay either via sms or email with a link. usually if the scam is not clear from the outset there will usually be a follow up message.

[jonamv8]

Came from ‘NHS’ so went into my text message thread with my COVID19 test result which made it look genuine at first.

I know from work that you can spoof the number or name of the sender of an SMS if sent from a server.

I can’t text back or call back. That’s why I’m confused as to the angle.

I was thinking there could be a follow up with a fake fine and dodgy link maybe

[Shakermaker]

jonamv8 said:

Came from ‘NHS’ so went into my text message thread with my COVID19 test result which made it look genuine at first.

I know from work that you can spoof the number or name of the sender of an SMS if sent from a server.

I can’t text back or call back. That’s why I’m confused as to the angle.

I was thinking there could be a follow up with a fake fine and dodgy link maybe

yes, pretty much this - tricking you in to a false sense of security, for those gullible enough/not aware enough to realise it is a scam. Especially with tricking the name to make it thread together with other genuine messages. You could get something else with a dodgy link which will hack your phone/ask you to pay and whilst most will ignore it, they only need a couple of idiots to follow it up for them to get a decent return on the low cost of sending out all the messages.