smishing

English

Etymology

Blend of SMS +‎ phishing.

Noun

smishing (uncountable)

1. A type of identity theft committed by means of a malicious link that is contained within a text message.
   • 2025 March 11, Zak Doffman, “FBI Warning—Delete These Texts On Your iPhone, Android Phone”, in Forbes‎^[1]:

     The FBI warns a threat moving across America “from state to state" targets citizens via malicious SMS (smishing) texts, teling^[sic] iPhone, Android users to “delete any smishing texts received.”

   • 2025 March 12, Ariel Zilber, “FBI’s warning to iPhone, Android users: Delete these ‘smishing’ texts now”, in New York Post‎^[2]:

     With smishing scams evolving and spreading at an alarming rate, authorities continue to emphasize vigilance.

Hypernyms

• phishing

Holonyms

• social engineering

Coordinate terms

• vishing

Translations

text message scam

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 簡訊釣魚 / 简讯钓鱼 (jiǎnxùn diàoyú)

• Dutch: smishing (nl) m or f
• French: smishing (fr) m
• Japanese: スミッシング (sumisshingu)
• Korean: 스미싱 (seumising)
• Swedish: smishing (sv) c

Anagrams

• Mishings

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English smishing.

Noun

smishing m (uncountable)

1. (computing) smishing
   • 2013 April 17, “Revisa tu celular: estos son los países más afectados por el "malware"”, in CNN en Español‎^[3]:

     Los usuarios móviles también pueden ser engañados a través del llamado smishing; una combinación de las palabras SMS y phishing (donde un usuario recibe un mensaje de texto en el que se le pide información personal como un número de tarjeta de crédito o dirección de correo electrónico).

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.