Apple’s Messages app has a built-in safeguard to prevent links or phone numbers in unsolicited messages on iPhones from being clickable, and now scammers are trying to trick the unwary into enabling them.
If only all scam calls and text messages were this easy to spot.
By default, if you receive a text message on an iPhone or other Apple device from an unknown sender, any links therein are disabled. Once you reply to a message, however, the Messages app then allows clickable links, reports Bleeping Computer.
Scammers and other threat actors have developed a way around this restriction that savvy users will spot easily, but novice users might fall for. Often, this “smishing” attack comes in the form of a notice of an unpaid bill for a small amount, or a “failed delivery” notification.