This text attack is made in China.
Stop sending SMS, the FBI told Americans in December, while Chinese pirates are marauding through American networks. But the office warns that there is another threat of text that is now sweeping America “State -of -state“And this one is more likely to have your money fly, maybe even your identity. And it is also made in China.
We are talking about “SMIRS” texts now targeting the iPhone and Android phones across America with links to false road toll bills. The FBI tells users to immediately delete all these texts. And there are many. The scale of this is now “astronomical“, With a cyber-expert suggesting” it would be so alarming to know what the real is the real cost “. It is certainly beyond a scam, it is an attack, says Micro trend.
In a new report, the antiphling working group (APWG) Paint a dark image. “Residents of the United States are bombed with text messages from Chinese phoists, which claims to come from American toll road operators, including multi-state EZPASS.” Do not reject it as a toll fraud. The same kits lead to the delivery of the package and other false messages with the same concept of operations, just a different text and links. This can be set to any lure. It is an infrastructure attack on our phones, not a single campaign.
And do not reject it as a tip for stealing a few dollars – it’s not at all. “They don’t care about the seven dollars,” said Aidan Holland from Censys, “they want your credit card number.” THE FTC Said that it is even worse, that your identity could be stolen.
“The texts,” explains the FBI, “says that the recipient owes money for unpaid tolls and contain an almost identical language. The “exceptional toll amount” is similar. However, the link provided in the text is created to usurp the identity of the name of the state toll service, and telephone numbers seem to change between states. ”
The reason for which these links are different is that the attackers are Record tens of thousands of areas To imitate the toll agencies of the State and the City and the Clicks of Lure. And the reason why the texts all seem similar is that they are manufactured by “an improved phishing kit sold in China, which allows you to send text messages and launch phishing sites that usurp the operators of toll roads in several American states.”
This is the APWG warning knot, which emphasizes that “the telephone numbers to which the sentences send the messages are generally random – they are sometimes sent to people who do not use toll roads at all, or target users in poor condition. Some text messages are sent from telephone numbers in countries other than China. ”
Chinese text attack is booming
But high -level areas are almost always Chinese, which is “a way to spot these scam messages”. Look for “less known high level domains such as .Top, .cyou and .xin”. The field .Top in particular “has a notable history of use by phishers.”
This is where it becomes interesting. The APWG says: “The .top register has long -standing compliance problems. Icann published a letter of violation in the register .Top in July 2024, citing the case of.
It should be easy to stop, right? Telephone OS networks or manufacturers can surely block texts with these links or provide new anti-SCAM measures to prevent them from hitting phones. Fake. SMS and now RCs are open protocols, and although anti-spam measures are supposed to be in place, they do not work. This should be easy – this is clearly not the case.
Trend Micro has an entire section on its website dedicated to toll scams. Jon Clay of the company said CNBC This week that Apple does nothing about this … Android will add it to their spam list so that you will not get sms of the same number, but the crooks will simply change. Apple did an excellent job by telling everyone that their phone is secure, and they are, but not from this type of attack. “”
The APWG claims that the recipients of these scam texts – of which there are probably hundreds of thousands – can “help update the alert / blocking mechanisms that protect billions of devices and software customers worldwide” by signaling them to the IC3.GOV of the FBI or directly at Apwg.org/Sms.
Meanwhile, the FBI says: “Check your account using the legitimate toll service website, contact the telephone service phone number of the toll service, [and] Remove all the texts from Smims received. »If you click on the link and provide information, consult your accounts and change your keywords even if you have not made payment.
