The present disclosure relates to methods and devices for identifying short messages received by mobile terminals as being from pseudo base stations, wherein, the method comprises: obtaining feature information of the short message when the mobile terminal receives the short message, wherein the feature information includes content information; judging whether the short message is suspected to be an annoying short message based on the feature information; obtaining, when it is judged that the short message is suspected to be an annoying short message, an operation time of when the mobile terminal performed a cell reselection operation with a location area update, wherein the operation time is closest in time to when the mobile terminal received the short message; determining whether the short message is an annoying short message from a pseudo base station based on the operation time. In the technical feature, information security of user terminals may be enhanced.