Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Phone message calling to download ‘shelter app’ is a scam, Israel warns

Clicking on malicious links could lead to theft of personal information.

SMS messages that impersonate official notifications from the Israel Defense Forces’ Home Front Command have been circulating since early morning, the Command stated on X on Thursday.

The messages contain malicious links to download an application supposedly intended “for staying in bomb shelters,” the tweet read in Hebrew.

The IDF warned that such links may be used to steal personal information or identification details, or cause damage to the user’s device.

It stressed that the Home Front Command does not distribute links to download applications via SMS messages and urged Israelis to stay alert against malicious hacking attempts.

Applications should only be downloaded from official app stores and in case of any doubt, the public should rely only on official information, the Command added.

The statement did not mention who is behind the cyberattack.

Israel has been at war with Iran for the past 19 days. Citizens nationwide have been entering protected spaces and bomb shelters due to missiles launched from Iran and Lebanon by Iran’s armed forces and Hezbollah respectively.

“What does he want from this?” Santiago Vidal Calvo, a Manhattan Institute analyst, told JNS. “Is this a publicity stunt?”
“For years, UNRWA schools have incited violence against Israel, UNRWA employees actively participated in the Oct. 7 massacre and throughout the war, terrorists carried out attacks against Israelis from UNRWA facilities,” the Israeli envoy told JNS.
The intervention by once-hostile Ljubljana prevented a joint condemnation of Israeli construction east of Jerusalem, according to “EUobserver.”
“I know that the only way that I can have some measure of success is with God’s blessing, providence, direction and wisdom,” the rabbi, of Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim in Baltimore, told JNS.