KnowBe4 - Smishing and Carrier Impersonation

While most phishing campaigns involve email, SMS text messages are an ideal alternative for attackers, according to Paul Ducklin at Naked Security. Text messages are brief and uniform in appearance, so there aren’t many indicators to raise suspicion. They also come from a phone number rather than an email address, so the recipient can’t examine the address for signs of illegitimacy. Additionally, legitimate text messages frequently make use of shortened, strange-looking links, so recipients are less inclined to be suspicious of an unfamiliar URL.

from KnowBe4 Security Awareness Training Blog https://blog.knowbe4.com/smishing-and-carrier-impersonation