Google Messages users have recently reported receiving what appears to be a Scam Rich Communication Service (RCS) message A message that appears as a random string of letters and numbers 

In THEORY, SENDING RCS TEXT VIA GOOGLE Messages IS A MORE SECURE MEANS OF SENDING MESSAGES COMPARED TO SMS AND MMS PROTOCOLS Google Messages provides end-to-end encryption by default, so no one can read messages other than the intended recipient, and Google can't read them either However, a recent Reddit post has revealed that people are receiving RCS messages that look like spam

The original post in the thread was created 2 years ago, but recently there has been a series of replies According to recent answers, many users are receiving messages from outside the area code However, every message appears to have the same legitimate link to Google's support page, and the trouble with not being able to decrypt the encrypted message

Currently there doesn't seem to be much information about where this post came from, but Android Police says it could be from spambot, which has gone rogue I'm guessing that this is the case They believe that spambots may be looking to identify and farm an active number via a read recipe, and that messages that go through without being decrypted may be dysfunctional

Google has been working to improve RCS communications services for its customers 1 One recent example of this is Google rolling out custom color options for beta testers It has also been announced that the iPhone will be able to access RCS communications in the fall, making secure communication between the iPhone and Android even easier

However, while Google's RCS messaging is fairly secure and offers a lot to its customers, this news shows that users need to remain vigilant — and that they should not click on links from unknown sources 

If you are concerned about the security of your phone, you have several options, such as downloading better security options On that note, we have a list of the best VPNs and antivirus software to help you get started