Fighting Fraud
By Better Business Bureau Serving Greater Cleveland
Our phones are constantly ringing with robocalls, phony voicemails and scammers trying to steal our personal and financial information. Now scammers are targeting consumers through messages on their phones. These unsolicited text messages often advertise government loans and grants to obtain quick money and personal information.
Better Business Bureau has been receiving reports of a new version of this scam. It starts by receiving a text message like this: “Your bill is paid for April. Thanks, here’s a little gift for you.” This message is followed by a link to an unfamiliar website. The text doesn’t specify what bill you paid, what company the message is from, or what the total amount paid. Even more disturbing, the message may be a group text sent to a dozen or more other people, none of whom are in your contacts list.
As it turns out, the text isn’t from a real company. The goal is to gather your personal information, putting you at risk for identity theft. In some versions of the scam, you may be directed to a website asking you to “confirm your identity” in order to receive the gift. Scammers may also ask for your credit card information, claiming you need to pay a few dollars to ship the “free” gift.
BBB offers tips to avoid text message scams:
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Don’t trust unsolicited messages. Scammers will try to get you to click a link or call a number in a text message claiming you’ve won a great prize, your subscription account is about to be deactivated, or there was a problem delivering a package to your home.
- Watch out for suspicious links. Scammers often use links along with an exciting offer or threat as part of a phishing scam. They want to evoke an emotional response from you, so you’ll click on the link without thinking. Carefully review suspicious links forwarded to you by friends, too. Even well-meaning friends may forward suspicious links without realizing they’ve been scammed.
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Look for spelling and grammar errors. A large number of fake texts originate with offshore companies where they may be crafted by someone who isn’t completely fluent in the English language.
- Personalized messages don’t make the sender trustworthy. Thanks to data breaches and online directories, scammers may have access to your name, address, where you bank, your phone provider and other details about your life. They may include some of this information in their text to appear more legitimate.
- If you spot a scam text, don’t reply. Some scammers ask you to text “STOP” or “NO” so you won’t receive future texts. In reality, your reply tells them they have a real, active phone number and could open you up to future attacks. If a text message seems suspicious, don’t reply. Block the number and erase the message.
- Call the company directly to confirm messages sent by text. If you think the message came from a legitimate company you do business with, call them directly before you click on any links. Keep in mind that businesses need your permission to send you text messages. If you never opted in to receive text messages from a company, the text is probably a scam.
- Report text scams. If you think you have been scammed via a text message to report the incident immediately to law enforcement and the Federal Trade Commission.
Research companies online at BBB.org. Have additional questions? Reach out to your BBB at 216.413.5232 or [email protected]. Have a scam to report? Report it to BBB.org/ScamTracker.
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