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A total of 40% of UK mobile users have received at least one suspicious message in the last three months
VPN provider Surfshark has launched a brand new tool designed to stop scam text messages before they ever reach you.
Called scam text protection, it works in real time on both iPhones and Android devices to catch fraudulent SMS messages — known as smishing — before you even have a chance to tap on them.
Dominykas Simkus, Senior Product Manager at Surfshark, said: "While traditional cybersecurity focuses on malware and hacking, modern scams increasingly target human behavior through social engineering techniques that exploit trust, urgency, and exposed personal data.
"SMS-based sophisticated scams are very difficult to spot, especially when they have no easy, identifiable mistakes. Our tool is built to spot mistakes or suspicious patterns in order to avoid any interaction with bad actors."
The new tool uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to scan every incoming text for dodgy patterns, checking areas such as URLs, the sender's phone number, and the message content itself. If something looks off, you get an instant alert.
Surfshark's feature arrives as 40% of UK mobile users reported having received at least one suspicious message on their mobile phone in the past three months, according to Ofcom.
Protect yourself from scam texts with a Surfshark VPN subscription
Protect yourself from fraud attempts with Surfshark's new scam protection feature — available across iPhone and Android. Surfshark will also bundle an extra three months at the end of a two-year plan, dropping the effective cost to just £1.99 per month. Surfshark lets you use your subscription across unlimited devices.
The feature is designed to behave differently depending on your phone. On iPhones, suspect messages are quietly shuffled into the Spam folder within the Messages app, so you never even get a notification — removing the temptation to engage entirely.
If you're an Android user, you'll get a Surfshark notification flagging the dodgy text. Tapping it opens the message in a safe, controlled environment within the app, so you can have a look without any risk.
Importantly, the tool doesn't store your messages, keep tabs on your phone activity, or feed any private data into AI training models.
There's also a neat bonus for US users — a calculator that estimates how much money each blocked scam text likely saved them.
Surfshark says you can set up the feature by following these steps.
The scam text protection feature is available now with Surfshark One or Surfshark One+ subscriptions. If you can't see it straight away, the company recommends heading to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and manually updating the app.
Surfshark isn't the only VPN provider to introduce this type of protection.
NordVPN wants to protect you from the scourge of scam calls.
The security firm, which has earned a slew of awards for its Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, has expanded the availability of its Call Protection feature on both iPhone and Android in the UK. For those who don't know, Call Protection is designed to identify and notify you of any suspicious numbers that could be a part of a scam.
The feature will flag the potential fraud before you pick up the phone. It's designed to help you quickly filter out calls that are trying to trick you, so you're less likely to fall for scams.
Domininkas Virbickas, Product Director at NordVPN, said, "Scam calls are a global problem that requires a global solution. By expanding call protection to the UK and Canada, we’re taking another step toward our goal of making phone communication safer and more transparent for users worldwide. We want to give people the context they need to make informed decisions about every call."
NordVPN says its Call Protection feature is designed to help reduce these scam calls. It works by analysing call patterns and metadata to identify potential scams before they reach you. The company stresses that it does not monitor or record the content of your conversations.
