What is Smishing?
A guide to how SMS attacks work and how to stay ahead of them.
Smishing has quietly become one of the most effective attack vectors in use today, and it bypasses most enterprise security tooling entirely.
- Smishing = phishing via text (SMS + phishing). Goal: get you to tap a link, share credentials, or send money
- US consumers reported $470 million in losses to text scams in 2024; five times higher than 2020
- SMS-based phishing now accounts for 35% of all phishing attacks and surged 40% year-over-year
- Roughly 70% of all mobile-based phishing attacks occur through SMS
Download the full What is Smishing guide to understand how these attacks work and how to spot them before it’s too late.
Download the Guide
What’s in the guide?
- What is smishing and why does it work?
- The five most common smishing scams and how to spot them
- What to do when you receive a smishing text
- What to do if you’ve already engaged with a smishing text
- Why smishing is a brand problem
- The difference between smishing, phishing, and vishing
- How Styx detects smishing campaigns to keep your brand safe
Trusted by leading brands worldwide
Digital risk protection for lean security teams
Styx Intelligence’s AI finds and connects the external digital risks threatening your brand; our analysts make sure your team knows
what to do about them.
Brand protection
Detect and take down fake websites, phishing domains, and impersonation scams before they damage your reputation and customer trust.
External Attack Surface Management (EASM)
Gain full visibility into your digital footprint, identify vulnerabilities, and secure misconfigured or exposed assets before hackers exploit them
Takedown service
Quickly take down phishing sites, fake accounts, fraudulent ads, and leaked corporate assets before they cause harm.
Executive Protection
Secure your leadership from impersonation, doxxing, and credential leaks with continuous monitoring and real-time threat detection.
Threat Intelligence
Track emerging cyber threats, monitor hacker forums, and analyze dark web activity to detect vulnerabilities, data breaches, and malicious actors before they target your brand.
Third-party risk management
Assess and monitor vendor security risks, compliance gaps, and data breaches to protect your brand from supply chain threats.
Digital Risk Score (DRS)
Quantify and prioritize brand threats with a dynamic risk score that helps you focus on the most critical vulnerabilities impacting your reputation and security.
Social media & news monitoring
Monitor brand mentions, sentiment, and misinformation across social platforms and news sources
Trusted by leading brands worldwide
Styx helps us safeguard our digital footprint, ensuring that brand reputation is never at risk.
Sumon Acharjee
Chief Information Officer, City of Markham
“Styx is a trusted partner that truly understands the challenges of brand protection. Their expertise and proactive approach make all the difference in keeping our brand secure.”
Satvir Thandi
Privacy & Security Officer, Methanex Corporation
“Styx gives us a level of visibility we've never had before. From data leaks to executive vulnerabilities and third-party risks, we now have a complete picture of our digital security landscape.”
Rob Philpotts
Partner – Cybersecurity, BDO
Detect, prioritize, and act on domain impersonations
Styx Intelligence monitors everywhere your brand can be abused: lookalike domains, phishing pages, fake social profiles, and more.
