Short for SMS Phishing, smishing is a variant of phishing email scams that instead utilizes Short Message Service (SMS) systems to send bogus text messages. Also written as SMiShing, SMS phishing made recent headlines when a vulnerability in the iPhone’s SMS text messaging system was discovered that made smishing on the mobile device possible.

Smishing scams frequently seek to direct the text message recipient to visit a website or call a phone number, at which point the person being scammed is enticed to provide sensitive information such as credit card details or passwords. Smishing websites are also known to attempt to infect the person’s computer with malware.