3 Common Text Message Scams and How to Avoid Them

You receive an intriguing letter. You’re offered a share in a buried treasure, and all you need do is send some money to a prisoner in a Spanish jail. He’ll bribe a guard with the money, get out, then meet up with you to split the bounty. Sounds like a plot of a pirate movie, but it’s actually the premise of one of the world’s oldest written scams, 1580s-style.

Fast forward to modern times, and what’s changed? Really, the only thing that has changed is the technology used. Criminals continue to tap into the same basic human flaws: greed and FOMO (fear of missing out). Instead of sending letters, they send fake emails, make fake phone calls, and in increasing numbers, send fake text messages.

For this post, we’re going to focus just on those fake text messages, starting with a rundown of the most common scam themes. We’ll wrap up with some simple steps you can take to protect you and your money. (To learn more about all the other types of scams – romance, scholarship, online jobs, to name a few – visit the security section of our blog.)

3 Most Common Text Message Scams

Our digital world has given us the ability to do all kinds of things with a tap or a click. Open a bank account to get a promo? Click, click, done. Sign up for a new service – click and done. Buy online – just a few taps and merchandise is on its way.

Cybercrooks are taking advantage of the whirlwind nature of our digital decisions. When they send a bogus text, they’re counting on a percentage of their targets not really being sure they don’t have a relationship with whomever sent an unexpected text. Couple that phenomenon with greed and FOMO, and it’s the perfect storm to get taken in by a smooth operator. Here’s a rundown of some of the most common text scam themes:

• An account or credit card issue with a financial institution you don’t have an account with. The message might urge you to contact them because of possible fraud activity. With this scam, they’re primarily after your financial information, including your login credentials, and to collect it, they create spoof websites of well-known financial institutions.
  
  
• A free gift or prize. Often the message revolves around getting a reward for paying your bill with the alleged provider. It could also be a prize for a contest you don’t remember ever entering.
  
  
• Package delivery. Typically, these messages say you have a package waiting, and you need to contact the company through a web form to confirm delivery time. Sometimes they want you to pay a small fee. The play here is to get you to divulge personal and/or financial information. The link in the message takes you to a bogus website where the scammer will collect information they can either sell or use.

What You Can Do

Your best action is no action! Resist the urge to respond right away. Instead, take a few breaths to clear your mind. If it’s from a financial institution, there are two things to remember. First, the scammer sends these blasts out and doesn’t particularly care if you do or do not have a relationship with that financial institution. They’re counting on you questioning yourself – “maybe I did open that account.”

The second thing to remember is that almost no bank, credit union, or credit card issuer will contact you by text message. PSECU definitely will not. If you have any doubts, do not respond to the text message. Instead, go to the financial institution’s website, get their phone number, and make a call. The old adage “better safe than sorry” holds true in this situation.

At PSECU, we take protecting our members’ personal and financial information very seriously. In fact, we’ve devoted an entire section on our website to highlight everything we do in the name of safeguarding our members from fraud. Check it out here. In addition, we have dozens of posts all focused on different types of fraud and how you can protect yourself from them.