Culture

Here’s Why You’ve Been Getting So Many Weird Spam Text Messages Lately

Received some "missed lalls"? Or "meesages"? You're not alone.

by Edwina Storie  12 August 2021
Screen capture of scam message saying "You have a missed lall"

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Have you recently received some extremely suspicious and very poorly written text messages? They’re full of spelling mistakes and come with a unique link that prompts you to access a missed call or message.

You’re not alone — a huge number of people have been receiving them every day, often numerous times a day. And no matter what they try, no matter how many they block, it seems that nothing…will…stop…them.

They essentially look like this:

Miffed by the constant influx of “meesages” and “missed lalls”, comedian and singer Em Rusciano contacted Telstra directly to ask who the F is sending these dodgy links. Thankfully, they had the answer. It’s an Android ‘Flubot’ with a link to a malicious website that attempts to install malware to your phone.

“They’re hard to block as it is coming from legit handsets/devices all over the world,” a Telstra rep told Rusciano. “They’re more difficult to block than some other scam. But rest assured we are aware and working on it.”

Thankfully, installing an anti-virus app to your Android will likely fix things.

Telstra recommends reporting the numbers to Scamwatch and also has some handy tips on what to do if you mistakenly clicked the link.

Online scams have shot up during the pandemic, with authors becoming increasingly creative. Be on your guard.