Our Phones and Messaging Apps Have Become the Primary Source of Phishing Attacks

Posted in Board Brief, KTFCU News on Apr 16, 2025

Part 2 of 2

We think financial lost as a result of scams, phishing and smishing schemes target other age groups, not ours.

The data shows different age groups are susceptible to different types of fraud. Here are some shocking statistics related to fraud targeted towards our cell phones via texts.

• In 2022, people between the age of 18-44 are most likely to lose money to phone scams.
• Of this group, over 55% are men and about 42% were women. The other 3% chose not to declare their sex.

WHY ARE TEXT MESSAGES INCREASING?
On Dec. 30, 2019, President Trump signed a bill called the TRACED ACT...

April 2025 Newsletter

Posted in KTFCU News, Newsletter on Apr 01, 2025

April 2025 Newsletter.pdf

Our Phones & Messaging Apps Have Become the Primary Source of Phishing Attacks

Posted in Board Brief, KTFCU News on Mar 19, 2025

Part 1 of 2

Almost all Americans own a cell phone (98%). In 2023, 76% of those were smartphones.

Our mobile phones are increasingly becoming instruments of phishing and spam attacks via our text apps. The industry calls these “smishing” schemes.

In 2022, 19.5% of texts were reported as spam (requests to block) and they are growing at a 15% rate per year.

What to Do?
Here is one example supposedly from the US Postal Service (USPS).

Upon inspection, here are some simple observations:

• The sender is from the Philippines (+63).
• It claims to be US Post and USPS parcel but does not say US Postal Se...