Smishing is the New SPAM with Giulia Porter

Smishing texts have increased over 60% in just one year. With scammers spoofing caller ID, how can you trust any communication coming onto your phone? Today's guest is Giulia Porter. Giulia is the Vice President of RoboKiller, the app that eliminates 99% of spam calls. Since 2017, Giulia has been leading RoboKiller's vision to create a world without spam calls. And now more recently with spam texts, they've introduced Text Killer.

Show Notes:

• [1:04] - Giulia shares her background and why she was led to a career with cyber security.
• [2:24] - Caller ID spoofing is when a scammer changes what number comes up on your phone when they call. There is also neighbor spoofing.
• [4:30] - Technology has allowed scammers to call from any number, including your own.
• [5:54] - Scammers try to stay ahead of trends.
• [6:30] - Stir/Shaken is a framework designed to help stop spam call problems.
• [8:12] - Most United States phone providers did implement this.
• [10:10] - Giulia explains how this framework works and some of the pitfalls it has.
• [12:08] - As of May, we are at about 6.5 billion estimated spam calls in the United States per day. About 35-40% of those use caller ID spoofing.
• [13:19] - Spam texts are on the rise having experienced a 60% increase in one year.
• [15:01] - Text Killer tries to distinguish between spam and unwanted texts.
• [16:21] - Giulia describes a court case against Facebook that changed the landscape of notification texts.
• [18:01] - Some people have a "burner phone" with a separate number that they use for accounts that require a phone number.
• [21:03] - Giulia shares some of the scams that were trending in the last couple of years and what scammers were targeting.
• [22:20] - In 2022, there has been an increase in illicit spam texts.
• [24:27] - Don't tap links in texts or reply to them. Delete the text.
• [26:18] - Thinking about your phone number in a more serious way is a way to be more aware of how many people have access to it.
• [27:56] - Chris shares something you can do about your personally identifiable information online.
• [29:20] - RoboKiller and Text Killer use AI and machine learning to analyze calls and texts to stop them from reaching you.
• [30:50] - You can talk to your carrier to find what protection they offer.
• [32:01] - Another concern is lobbyists paying providers to have select campaign texts to come through.
• [33:13] - You can report spam texts and notify your carrier.
• [34:52] - How does Robo and Text Killer make sure the numbers and texts that are blocked are accurate?
• [38:12] - RoboKiller has to work with different providers and that creates challenges when they all function slightly differently.
• [40:38] - The next wave of scams are through apps like WhatsApp and Messenger.
• [43:12] - Organizations need to also consider how much they lose to scams posing as them.
• [45:12] - RoboKiller is available online as well in the app store on iPhones and Android. There are free services and premium.

Thanks for joining us on Easy Prey. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes and leave a nice review.

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