I got this text message yesterday. It looked completely authentic.
The amount looks real too, and not rounded off! It was very tempting to click the link and know more. Then I remembered something I use extensively in the background. Bitly, the company behind the short-URLs has a nifty process where it shows the number of hits of *any* short URL created with its service, to *anyone* if you add a ‘+’ at the end.
In case you did not know – copy-paste any bitly short URL, add a + in the end and enter.
I did that with the bitly URL mentioned in the text message. And this is what I got!! A Russian domain (dot ru!). Sure-shot spam! And then, look at the details!
1. Created on December 11, just a day before.
2. Clicked 4K+ times in one day!
3. Email/sms is the most prominent source of clicks!
4. 3.8K+ clicks from India!
I’m glad bitly offers this level of details. I have no idea what the URL, upon clicking, may do, but I thank bitly and my marginally better awareness of how it works for helping me figure that this was a spam! A very convincing, realistic looking spam, if I may add.