Dangerous Text Message?

Palmpilot

Palmpilot

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
23,094
Location
PUDBY
Display Name
Richard Palm
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Palo Alto (SFO area)
I received a text message on my iPhone from an email address I don't recognize. Could there be a danger of a hijack attempt or some other kind of malware if I open it?
 
Nope, just delete it, I get them every so often too.
 
My favorites lately are the ones asking of I want to sell the house at "#### Somestreet or other." I usually respond with, "Sure, 2.3million all cash and 15 day escrow"

They never even send a counteroffer.
 
Palmpilot said:
I received a text message on my iPhone from an email address I don't recognize. Could there be a danger of a hijack attempt or some other kind of malware if I open it?
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I'm more surprised that this is your first. I get them all the time. Usually of the "for a good time click here" variety. Some are pretty graphic in their wording. But yes, just delete them.

Unfortunately, my 13-year old daughter gets them too. Nothing appears "targeted" to her, it's the same type of spam I get.
 
Is there any danger in opening the text message?
 
With ATT you can block all text messages originating from their email interface. It’s always spam anyway.
 
I've gotten texts at home from someone drunk in a bar asking me to go home with him. Figure some woman gave the guy a fake phone number which happened to be mine.
 
Yes, it can be dangerous opening text messages from people with ill intent. Definitely dangerous if you click the link.
 
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Everskyward said:
I've gotten texts at home from someone drunk in a bar asking me to go home with him. Figure some woman gave the guy a fake phone number which happened to be mine.
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I got a new phone a year or two ago that obviously had a "recycled" number. As soon as I booted it up, I was bombarded with a series of texts between the members of some family where grandpa was in the hospital. Shared pictures, happy stories, sad stories, inappropriate stuff, the entire spectrum of what you'd see in a group text.

In any other circumstance, I'd have effed with them, but given that it was mostly about Grandpa, I alerted them they should probably drop the number/contact from their contact list(s).
 
PaulS said:
Yes, it there can be dangerous opening text messages from people with ill intent. Definitely dangerous if you click the link.
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OK, I will resist the urge to see what's in it.
 
Everskyward said:
I've gotten texts at home from someone drunk in a bar asking me to go home with him. Figure some woman gave the guy a fake phone number which happened to be mine.
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A long time ago I got a call from a lady, who used my name preceded by Sgt., she told me she couldn't go out with me tonight. I'm married and I thought someone was messing with me, my friends used to prank all the time, so I said to her, "Ok", she said "is that it?" I said "yup, take care", and she hung up. About a year later I found out someone with my name was stationed over at an Army base nearby with the same name when I got another call from someone else. Ooops.
 
Delete it. Don't click on any links. On a PC you can hover over a link to see the URL and it is usually something strange not related to who they claim to be.

FWIW- I'm a System Security Engineer with a CISSP so I do this for a living...lol
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
I believe he was discussing a text message on an iPhone. I think that would be de minimus risk. But no reason to open such things.
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Cap'n Jack said:
Remember iPhones are computers.
https://www.verizon.com/support/knowledge-base-180245/
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Not only that, just about every pc asks to sync up with your phone. If you don't recognize it, don't open it, if it's important they'll tell you about it first. I hate FB messenger just for this reason, I refuse to put it on my phone, I don't want it on my pc, but FB made it so it's there. People are always sending links through messenger, I refuse to open them.
 
I’ve had my cellphone number since (pauses to recall...) 1994, and at that time, there really were very few “recycled” numbers (if any).

Lately, I’ve been getting lots of calls and texts for “Hylise.” Don’t know who she is, but I don’t think she is very good at paying her bills.
 
I get numerous scam attempts every week...just delete anything suspicious without opening them. Lots of stuff looks genuine. Beware emails or text messages asking to verify your info..
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
Are there any documented cases of iPhone malware infecting a phone coming from a text message link?
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Here you go:
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/dangerous-android-malware-comes-to-the-iphone
Click on the link, get the malware. The link can come from a text, an e-mail, a web page- it doesn't matter. All links are treated the same by the phone.

I'll remind you again that phones are computers- that means someone will find a way to get around whatever security exists, no matter what operating system.
 
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I've come to the realization that one red flag is any text whose sender is not clearly identified.
 
One time sitting at home, I get a text. ''Your late, curfew was 11pm''. Current time was 11:21. I ignored it.

5 minutes later, ''You are in big trouble mister''. I ignored it.

5 minutes later, ''Do not ignore me, I know you are getting these messages.''

I texted back, ''check number please''.

Then got back, ''I am so sorry''.

I texted back, '':) no problem, Don't be too hard on him, I used to stay out late and I turned out Ok''.
 
Palmpilot said:
I've come to the realization that one red flag is any text whose sender is not clearly identified.
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Basically any link from anyone you do not know is suspect. And links from people you know that are out of character are suspect too. I don't know how many friends email and social accounts have been hacked by clicking a link from someone they didn't know.
 
lol. An iPhone infecting a Windows PC is not as likely because the core OS are different. Not saying it can't happen but the general saying in my industry is 'if it is connected to a network it is vulnerable'.

When I was a system admin for a company that made all plastic pieces for airplane interiors we had a guy that couldn't help himself. He called me one day saying he got an email that had a Linkedin message and he clicked on it. I told him to unplug everything and shut it off right away. Luckily nothing happened and we caught it in time. I re-imaged his laptop as it had encrypted his drive but hadn't made it out onto the network yet. I left the company and heard he did it again after I left and it made it's way into the network and caused serious issues.

I work for a company that has a contract with a federal agency. I'm the team lead and my team is responsible for securing and hardening all Windows servers in the agency (about 20,000 servers). My team doesn't touch Linux stuff but I really like Linux. Much better in my opinion but that's another story.
 
Zeldman said:
One time sitting at home, I get a text. ''Your late, curfew was 11pm''. Current time was 11:21. I ignored it.

5 minutes later, ''You are in big trouble mister''. I ignored it.

5 minutes later, ''Do not ignore me, I know you are getting these messages.''

I texted back, ''check number please''.

Then got back, ''I am so sorry''.

I texted back, '':) no problem, Don't be too hard on him, I used to stay out late and I turned out Ok''.
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You’re kind.

I likely would have replied, “I’ll come home as soon as the cops let me leave.”
 
I got an email recently from an unfamiliar company with a PDF invoice attached, saying that my order was on the way. Of course I don't open unexpected attachments. If it was a scammer, I didn't want to verify my existence by replying to the email, so I Googled the company name and found that it appeared to be a legitimate ham radio supplier. They had a customer-service chat feature, so I gave them the order number from the email and let them know that I didn't order anything. After some initial confusion, they discovered that they had sent it to the wrong email address. I never did find out how they got my email address, but by this time I had enough confidence to open the invoice, and found that their customer had a very similar name (Richard Palmer instead of Richard Palm).
 
Cap'n Jack said:
Here you go:
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/dangerous-android-malware-comes-to-the-iphone
Click on the link, get the malware. The link can come from a text, an e-mail, a web page- it doesn't matter. All links are treated the same by the phone.

I'll remind you again that phones are computers- that means someone will find a way to get around whatever security exists, no matter what operating system.
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Yes of course it is theoretically possible as these are programmable devices. But the malware in that article was being installed using an enterprise distribution system, essentially a bypass of the normal App Store.

If one has not jailbroken the iPhone and sticks to apps from the App Store (which have been signed by Apple), I am not aware of any case of malware being installed by clicking a link on an iPhone.

Still no reason to be clicking on suspicious links. The App Store has its downsides (such as censorship by Apple and price effects) but one of its benefits is much better security.
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
Yes of course it is theoretically possible as these are programmable devices. But the malware in that article was being installed using an enterprise distribution system, essentially a bypass of the normal App Store.
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Yes, but it was installed via a link, as you requested.

PeterNSteinmetz said:
If one has not jailbroken the iPhone and sticks to apps from the App Store (which have been signed by Apple), I am not aware of any case of malware being installed by clicking a link on an iPhone.
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I just showed you a credible example of malware via links. They were clever enough to find a way to bypass the app store; that distribution system was the Apple Enterprise Developer Program, on Apples' servers. There have been instances of malware inside the Apple store such as the xcodeghost- this used a version of the xcode compiler used to create programs for phones and computers using Apple's operating systems. Here's one that apparently made it through last year: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...le-to-hacking-tool-for-months-researchers-say

PeterNSteinmetz said:
Still no reason to be clicking on suspicious links. The App Store has its downsides (such as censorship by Apple and price effects) but one of its benefits is much better security.
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No disagreement here, but it isn't 100 percent safe.
Here's another reference- via web pages (links, again)
https://blog.malwarebytes.com/mac/2019/08/unprecedented-new-iphone-malware-discovered/
 
Cap'n Jack said:
There have been instances of malware inside the Apple store such as the xcodeghost- this used a version of the xcode compiler used to create programs for phones and computers using Apple's operating systems. Here's one that apparently made it through last year: https://www.theguardian.com/technol...le-to-hacking-tool-for-months-researchers-say
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Thanks. The Kismet one is particularly intriguing. Very safe for the average user, but as you note, you can never achieve 100% security.
 
Half Fast said:
You’re kind.

I likely would have replied, “I’ll come home as soon as the cops let me leave.”
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Yep ... I might have said, "it's gonna be a while. I'm gonna need a ride and $1500 for the bail bonds man!" :rockon:
 
And here I thought this would be a thread about getting texts from your girlfriend that you don't want your wife to see.

I confess myself disappointed.
 
bflynn said:
And here I thought this would be a thread about getting texts from your girlfriend that you don't want your wife to see.

I confess myself disappointed.
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Me too!
 
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