Now, SMS spam attack on Australia

Sydney, June 30 (ANI): Australian mobile users have reported receiving a new kind of attack-SMS spams, which says the user have won 123,000 dollars but must reply to the message with their email address for further instructions.

Security researchers have termed these attacks as "Smishing" - SMS phishing - and "SPASMS" - spam using SMS.

The reports come as Commonwealth Bank customers are being inundated with scam attempts by fraudsters posing as the bank.

The sustained scam campaign is one of the first in Australia to use SMS, fraudulent call centres and emails in a three-pronged attack.

In the most recent 123,000 dollars SMS reward scam, some people who replied to the SMS have reported receiving an email soon after from "the iKobo money transfer office" in Thailand, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The message congratulates them "for being the lucky person chosen to receive an unclaimed iKobo Visa prepaid card that has been abandoned in our vault for 12 months."

To collect the money, the target simply has to provide their name and address and pay the courier postal fee, which is listed as around 1000 dollars depending on the delivery method chosen.

Once the scammer receives the courier fee, they disappear and no card is ever received by the victim.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently published an alert on its SCAMwatch website informing people of the scam.

"Anyone responding will find themselves being asked for personal details and an upfront fee of thousands of dollars to release a non-existent prize. Responding will also confirm the phone number to the scammers and provide spammers with a new email address to target," it wrote. (ANI)