NCSAM post 8: Verizon is getting phished now

Verizon customers, not the company is getting phished now. Verizon subscribers are the target of a phishing expedition; do not respond to this text message comes to us from Phone Arena.

The same day the Security Box was to air, I had signed up for a webinar dealing with 5 Things You Need To Know About Ransomware Before It’s Too Late begins in 1 hour – October 13, 2021 at 02:00 PMEDT. You may ">view and sign up for the web cast as the replay is available.

I bring this up in this post because one of the things even though it talks about ransomware, is that Phishing and Social Engineering are the steps that actors can take when it comes to getting information.

The article reminds us of the T-Mobile breach and what is going on there, but then goes on to say that Verizon customers may be getting similar things.

First of all, most Verizon subscribers have already paid their September bill so while it might seem that the text must be from Verizon since it knew that you paid last month’s invoice, as a Verizon customer this writer can tell you that the nation’s largest carrier doesn’t offer you a gift just for making your payment on time; heck, Verizon won’t send you a gift for paying your bill earlier than the due date. 

As I said in a previous post, I’ve seen messages identifying me by name, and telling me Thanks for paying my bill and offering me a prize too. That post talking about the T-mobile breach phishing expodition should be read too, as these two posts are related.

It would not surprise me if any of the other carriers around the country will be hit with actors doing the same thing.

You don’t need a smartphone for this, even flip phones with web capability could be used, as no application is ever downloaded. How do I know this? I’ve looked at these URL’s, and the prior post talks about what I’ve seen.

I’ll say that the paragraph I am quoting is specific to Verizon, I am not sure if it applies to T-Mobile or AT&T customers. That paragraph says:

With this information, you could lose control of your Verizon account while the bad actor changes the address, password, and other information. Once that is accomplished, this criminal orders expensive new phones that you’ll be paying for. The devices get sent to your account’s new address which is controlled by the crook.

I think the advice should be followed where it says that if you receive a questionable text, call the carrier to confirm things. Since I’ve seen how AT&T sends me free text messages, I know that there is a short code. The Verizon article linked here gives the short code to forward these bogus messages to. Please make sure you read both this article I link to here on this post, and the prior one for T-Mobile along with its accompanying article.

This seems to be a hot commodity right now, and this post is post 8, although both this and the prior post has the NCSAM tag i have on the blog.

This is valuable information. Please be aware of what is going on and stay safe. Know how your phone carrier sends you texts messages so you’re aware of what might lie ahead.

Thanks so much for reading!