People are just realising four ‘slippery’ dangerous texts you must delete immediately – ignoring could cost you

PEOPLE are just realising that there are four “slippery” texts you must delete immediately – ignoring them could cost you.

Virgin Media’s experts have issued an urgent warning to Brits about the four scam texts.

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Just ignoring the texts without deleting them could expose your phone to malware designed to steal your personal information.

First, you should always be wary of any text which isn’t relevant to you.

This could be anything from a “parcel delivery fee you weren’t expecting” to a “final demand on a bill you’ve never seen”.

Rather than click any links in a suspicious text, forward it to 7726 to alert Virgin’s experts.

If you do think it could be a genuine message from a company, always go through that company’s website or app – not the link.

Another sign that a text could be “slippery” is if the link does not look official.

A different URL to the company’s real website or a shortened link like bit.ly are common giveaways.

The third clue is when the style of the text is different to the ones you normally get from the company.

If the firm normally asks you to log into your account via an app, be wary if the text asks you to click a link.

But be warned – scammers can spoof real phone numbers so they appear in the same conversation as genuine texts from the company.

Finally, any text which includes a threat if you miss a deadline should ring alarm bells – as should punctuation or spelling errors or attempts to get your personal information.

It comes after Google warned billions of YouTube fans over a “three-strike rule” which could see them locked out if they flout a new policy.

This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk