Consumers bite at phishing scam

Thanks to John Stark at the Bellingham Herald for picking up a report out of Idaho about more than 100 people who were hooked by a phishing scam. The victims were duped by fake text messages informing them that their debit cards had been frozen and telling them to call a number to provide account information.

By the way, there’s a special name for these scams – smishing, a term coined in 2006 that combines “phishing” with Short Message Service (SMS), the technology used to transmit text messages over cellular devices.

If you get a text message like this and aren’t sure if it’s legit, call your bank directly – using the number on your bank statement or the back of your debit card.