One in 100 falls for SMS scams

LONDON - As the number of mobile internet users rises rapidly, criminals are exploiting new technologies with increasing efficiency. One in 100 recipients falls for SMS scams as criminals start targeting smart phones, says a survey.

With smart phones predicted to outsell PCs in 2011, the survey, commissioned by mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile, indicates that traditional spam e-mail successfully persuades fewer than one in a million users to visit the site it is advertising.

But so-called conversion rates of mobile spam are often higher than one percent and a single SMS text message spam attack can generate more than $10 million in just three days, reports the Telegraph.

The types of scam the firm found included sophisticated attacks that exploit smart phone capabilities to connect to the internet - the results included click fraud on ads or mobile viruses.

Simpler scams included SMS messages claiming the recipient had won a prize and fooling them into replying via a premium rate call or text.

With spammers finding ways of avoiding the cost of sending bulk SMS, the traditional barrier to receiving spam on mobiles has been removed, said Simeon Coney, vice-president of business development at AdaptiveMobile.

A mobile phone is a very personal device and people are intrinsically more trusting of communications via their handset than content in their e-mail inboxes.

“While the mobile operators are fighting the criminals at a network level, users too need to play their part if theyre to stay safe in an increasingly mobile world.