You’ve Been Smished! - So Now What?

This blog is for the technophobe and expert alike. In case you are wondering, Smishing is Phishing but via SMS text. Cyber Security professionals these days can spot an SMS Smishing or Email Phishing campaign – right? Well mostly yes, we can, but how many of those same Cyber Security professionals know what they should do with them?

In case you were wondering, the answer is to not just delete them. How about reporting to the authorities? Ever heard the phrase “See it, Say it, Sorted”? Well, why should cyber-crime be considered any differently to any other type of crime? This is an explanation of what to do next, that is so rarely discussed and so few in the industry are aware of.

Let’s take a typical series of events.

Receiving a Smishing text or Phishing email.

The entry point and our first stage is when a text such as this Recently Reported Scam is received.

Identification - See It

Upon reading the text you become concerned it could be a Scam. Traditionally the next step would be to remove it. Don’t remove it just yet as we are missing a vital step!

Report It – Say It

The “So what” of the discussion, and the penultimate step. Ask yourself “Should I report this?” If your conclusion is yes, then forward it to the authorities.

• Forward it by SMS (At no cost) to 7726
  Add this to your contacts so you do not forget it!
• Forward it by email to
  Add this to your contacts so you do not forget it!
• Report suspicious websites via Report A Suspicious Web Site Form
  Add this to your favourites so you do not forget it!

And Finally - Sorted

Delete it and if you’re thorough, block the number if an SMS, or the contact if an email.

In Summary

Cyber Crime is no different to crime in the real world. Keep things simple by remembering “See it, Say it, Sorted”, and do not forget the importance of remembering to report scams.

If you’ve found this interesting, here are some Top Tips from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) explaining how to spot a scam and what to do if you have fallen victim to them.

If you can influence your IT Department at work, there is an easily configurable add-in to Office 365 to allow single click reporting of suspicious mails to the NCSC’s Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERS). The One Click To Report Phishing is for Office 365 and targeted specifically at its Administrators and not the novice user though.

Contact Details

If you would like any more information on how Net Reply can help you spot phishing and securing your networks, please get in touch with !