Host Intro: In today’s day and age everyone utilizes their cell phones and other technology as means of communication, entertainment, and much more. What happens when something we depend on so much is used as a vehicle to attempt to trick and damage us? Leonard Melnik spoke with several individuals pertaining to their experiences with scam messages.
AMBI: Sound of MTA train approaching on the tracks (FADE DOWN AS TRACK BEGINS)
TRACK: I am sitting with Ben Hecker on the MTA, he is a game design major at NYU who has recently released his own video game and has been telling me about a really fun social game he deployed in his class. While the FCC warns that text scams are on the rise, that does not seem so to Ben.
ACT: BEN: Um ,scam texts I mean they are a thing. They aren’t a big deal for me at least, they are usually in the form of “Your venmo account got signed into recently, click this link to fix it”. But every time I get the message the phone number is different and the link is really sketchy looking.
TRACK: What Ben has just described is called smishing, it is a type of attack where the scammer will disguise themselves as a legitimate entity and try to trick the victim. According to BleepingComputer there has been an exponential rise in this type of attack.
TRACK: While he is very aware of scams and won’t fall for one easily, Ben also does not have a lot of public information that could be used in such scams.
ACT: BEN : But also I tend to be more careful on the internet and can imagine that other people who are less careful probably get a lot more scam stuff because their information is more out there.
TRACK: Now I am on Sheepshead Bay, speaking to Nicole who is a pre-med student. She shares a similar experience with Ben, and personally noticed a trend opposite to the FCC.
ACT: NICOLE: I actually noticed a decrease in scam messages when I purchased my new phone.
TRACK: While maybe her new phone is better at deducting scams, she also experienced Smishing attacks
ACT: NICOLE: Sometimes the messages tried to fake a company like AT&T
TRACK: When I asked her what the texts usually contained, she told me that they usually provide some sort of positive incentive.
ACT: NICOLE: It usually included a small paragraph like “Claim your prize now!” and then a link to some obscure website that I never clicked.
TRACK: While she had never clicked on one of the links, I asked her if she ever responded to the texts
ACT: NICOLE: No never, actually on one occasion I simply wrote “Shut up”.