Fraudsters could be hiding behind it. We'll show you how you can protect yourself from this phishing SMS and what you should definitely pay attention to.

What happens on warning day

The nationwide warning day is coming up again in Germany in December . It can be understood as a kind of conscious stress test for the warning infrastructure in Germany. On this day, the federal and state governments test all warning devices with the aim of familiarizing the population with one or more warnings. It is also about identifying weak points in the systems and making improvements if necessary. As early as September 2020, numerous weak points in the warning systems were identified during the first nationwide warning day.

This year too, numerous ways will be used to send messages to the population. In addition to warning texts that are broadcast on the radio, digital billboards in city centers and TV, there will also be warning messages on your smartphone. In this context, the new Cell Broadcast warning service tested.

No app necessary – but be careful!

The special thing about the process is that no warning app is required to be installed on the smartphone. Instead, citizens should receive notifications in advance about updates to the network operator settings or informational SMS.

But this is exactly where you need to be extremely careful, because it could not be official news, but rather from fraudsters . ZDF and Dirk General-Kuchel , editor-in-chief of Computer Bild, warn against so-called phishing SMS.

Phishing SMS with dangerous links

Events such as Warning Day or new EU banking regulations are often misused by cybercriminals for their own purposes. As a result of these “official” announcements, it is much easier for fraudsters to make their messages and phishing links more credible or to deceive more users.  

What this means specifically for the current situation: The fraudsters could imitate the informative messages from mobile phone providers such as Vodafone or Telekom and tell users, for example, that they have to update their network operator settings regarding the warning day by clicking on a link.

However, this link does not contain a reputable platform, but either a fake website that would allow you to download certain viruses, or a Trojan horse virus. These scams make it easy for fraudsters to access your access data for online banking or other personal information.

How you can protect yourself

Basically, you should always treat all links with suspicion . It doesn't matter whether they were sent to you on WhatsApp, via (supposedly legitimate) SMS or via email from an unknown sender. You should be particularly careful if the message actively encourages you to click the link and/or contains noticeable spelling and grammatical errors.

Have you received a suspicious message and would like to have it checked? Forward the content to us via our reporting form!

Furthermore, it makes sense on the website of the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance , for example, in order to be able to better assess whether a message or something similar is fake in case of doubt. Mobile phone providers such as Telekom and Vodafone further information about December 8th and the messages sent for it.

Source: Inside Digital

Also read: Cell Broadcast – The new warning channel in the event of a disaster

Author: Nick L.


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