It was revealed last week that there is an inherent security flaw in the way a SMS message, more commonly known as a text message, can be sent with a reply to address different from the address that sent it and you wouldn't see it, thus sending a reply to someone entirely different from whom it appears to be from. This kind of thing isn't really new, but common sense can help protect you.

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This kind of thing is also built into regular email, and you see it all the time in spams as well as emails from legitimate sites. This is nothing new and can be easily dealt with just by being a little skeptical. Is this the kind of thing you expect from the person that sent it to you? It looks like it's from your bank? Maybe you should call them and make sure they really need you to update your password.

Another good rule of thumb is to not use the links embedded into the message. Just open a browser yourself and type in the address to the website yourself if you commonly do business on that website. This is just like those phishing kind of emails we can all get, just a different medium. I have yet to see anything messages like this in the wild, but it doesn't mean I couldn't get one just like you. So when you do get a message, and you're not sure, just double check the message. It's from a friend? Start a new message from a known good address for them and ask them if they sent it. Just questioning the message a little, can save you a lot of hassle.

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