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Clark Howard's Tips

March 12, 2008

Have you been "smished" yet? Smishing is when a criminal goes phishing for your personal info via text message.

This year, Americans will face an estimated 1.5 billion spam text messages. Those who use eBay, do online banking or access a brokerage account online are at the greatest risk of getting smished. So watch out for those urgent text messages seeking your personal banking info. The Washington Post reports even sophisticated people are falling for these ploys.

Text messaging is a big growth area for cons and legitimate advertisers alike. The cell carriers aren't interested in slowing down the traffic. After all, they're making money on every text you receive, unless you're on an unlimited texting plan.

Meanwhile, there's a new level of security coming to your online brokerage account. Soon, you'll be able to use your mouse to put in a password on a soft screen -- instead of typing it on your keyboard. This will help minimize keylogger infiltration, where every keystroke can be remotely sent to a hacker.

Consumer advice courtesy of