SMS-based scams (smishing) have reached critical levels. Americans received an average of 19.2 billion spam texts per month as of late 2023 — a near-threefold increase since 2021. To counter this growing online threat, the leading cybersecurity company and VPN provider, Surfshark, is introducing a real-time protection tool to combat scam messages. Scam text protection is designed to safeguard iOS and Android users from smishing by detecting fraudulent messages before users interact with them.
“Recently, we have introduced a scam protection hub, a unified space to make it easier for users to defend against modern, human-centric cyberthreats like scams, phishing, or identity fraud. Scam text protection is our newest feature to be introduced to face these online threats and help users fight increasingly sophisticated SMS-based scams,” explained Dominykas Simkus, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark.
With SMS scams accounting for 35% of all phishing attempts globally, a dedicated tool to protect you from them is crucial. Surfshark scam text protection feature screens incoming messages for potential threats in real time, checks for suspicious patterns including URLs, sender’s phone numbers, or message content, and instantly alerts users.
Using AI-driven technology, the scam text protection rapidly detects phishing attempts, safeguarding users’ sensitive data with enhanced accuracy. With this feature, users can improve their online safety with greater confidence, having a powerful ally to combat sophisticated SMS-based scams whenever needed.
“While traditional cybersecurity focuses on malware and hacking, modern scams increasingly target human behavior through social engineering techniques that exploit trust, urgency, and exposed personal data. SMS-based sophisticated scams are very difficult to spot, especially when they have no easy, identifiable mistakes. Our tool is built to spot mistakes or suspicious patterns in order to avoid any interaction with bad actors,” said Simkus.
He added that this feature does not retain messages, monitor the phone generally, or use private data to train AI models.
How the Surfshark scam text protection works
When a message is received, the feature analyzes it for known scam signatures and suspicious patterns.
If a scam is detected, on iOS, the message is automatically moved to the Spam folder within the native Messages app. Users do not receive notifications for these filtered messages, effectively removing the trigger of a scam attempt.
On Android, the user receives a notification from Surfshark warning that it’s a scam. The notification opens a window in our app in a controlled environment where the message can be examined with no risk of scam.
Additionally, this dashboard is available in the Surfshark app with more details outlining the suspicious messages. It also includes an exclusive feature for US citizens that highlights the value gained by calculating how much money they likely saved by avoiding each fraudulent text.
Scam text protection feature is now available for both iOS and Android users with Surfshark One and Surfshark One+ plans. To ensure this feature is visible instantly, it is recommended to manually update the app by visiting the official Apple App Store or Google Play Store.