Phishing versus Smishing Posted at 11/22/2010 09:52:00 PM 0 comments (+) Explained courtesy of this article posted by the Consumers Union of U.S., Inc. about The Sneakiest New Shopping Scams. Read more about it HERE.

Phishing is when you get an e-mail from a supposedly trustworthy source, such as your bank or PayPal, claiming a problem with your account and asking for your user name and password. When you respond, your information is stolen and your account is siphoned. "Smishing" is the latest twist on that scam—instead of getting an e-mail, you get a text message. (The word is a combination of "SMS," for short message service, aka text messaging, and "phishing.") You're told to call a toll-free number, which is answered by a bogus interactive voice-response system that tries to fool you into providing your account number and password.