Please Never Open a PDF With Weird Text
I receive a lot of spam texts . A lot . They are immediately recognized: the original number does not look familiar and is attached to the message, so it is obvious that this is a phishing attempt, it is even offensive. But lately I’ve noticed a surge in a new type of spam text, usually coming from an email rather than a phone number, with blank text followed by an attached PDF. Whoever is behind these spam messages wants me and other recipients to open said PDF and hopefully click on any hyperlink that may be hiding within.
If you find yourself in the same situation, please: Do not open the PDF. It’s just not worth the risk. While I haven’t seen any reports of these types of PDFs causing harm on their own, this is far from unprecedented. Microsoft just put out a similar fire related to the Follina vulnerability, a security vulnerability that allowed attackers to execute PowerShell commands after a user opened a malicious Microsoft Office document. Yes, it is possible to attack a user’s device using only a seemingly harmless file.
It is possible to imagine a similar scenario with a malicious PDF file sent via text message. If someone discovers an exploit in iOS or Android, they can create malware that can infect your smartphone. Again, there are no reports of such an exploit, nor reports of attackers taking advantage of it via rosy PDFs. But it’s always better to be safe.
So, we recommend: do not open PDF. But let’s say, for the sake of argument, you did it (oops). Chances are the PDF is mostly full of spam text trying to sell you some half-baked presentation that they think will grab your attention. Inevitably there will be a link that you can click on if you want. Do. No. Click. . Link.
As with all weird and scam links, there’s no way to tell exactly where they’ll take you or what will happen to your device or data when you get there. Again, this could be a situation where simply clicking on a link results in actions you didn’t intend. However, these links often lead to fake websites that look like the real thing and are trying to trick you into downloading malware or entering sensitive personal information. Obviously do neither.
What to do if you receive a spam PDF
The next time one of these beautiful PDFs is at the top of your posts, here’s what you should do. You usually report the message to your operator by forwarding the text to 7726. But since this is a PDF file, you will not be able to forward the document. Instead, give the email address twice: the operator searches for the message the first time you send a message to 7726, so you will need to send the email address a second time for it to fully register.
Obviously this system is not designed to handle non-SMS spam, but this workaround is better than nothing. Let’s hope this knocks out yet another scam email address, even if there are many more.