Several months ago, I received an alarming text message: $699 had been charged to my PayPal account for a Pixel 6 phone! It was alarming for several reasons: I had purchased a Pixel 6 phone earlier in the year, and I only use PayPal to receive payments and knew I only had about $3 in the account.
The text provided a phone number to call, purportedly to PayPal, if I questioned the purchase. I called, but after several minutes of the person at the other insisting I go online to fill out some forms, I began to get suspicious. When I questioned him more closely, he abruptly hung up.
My PayPal account has never been charged and it turned out to be a scammer.
I hadn’t had that experience via text before, but apparently, I’m far from the only one to receive a scam text. Consumers were scammed out of $86 million nationwide in 2020. Locally, SRP Federal Credit Union reports that scammers are using texts to try to weasel bank account information from unsuspecting customers.
These scams usually have several things in common.
- They claim to come from a legitimate financial institution, such as a bank, the IRS, or PayPal
- They create a sense of urgency, such as a large, unexpected charge, a problem with processing a payment, or a threat of locking your account if you don’t respond immediately. It may also take the form of an unexpectedly large deposit or the offer of a prize. Urgency in responding is the common theme.
- A phone number to call or a website to access to resolve the issue.
Just clicking on the text itself doesn’t open you to danger, but don’t interact with it. If you receive a possible scam text, SRP advises:
- Don’t click on links.
- Don’t log in to suspicious websites or enter financial information.
- Don’t call the telephone number provided in the text.
- Don’t respond to the text. Even replying with STOP can let the scammer know your number is genuine and they can sell your number to other scammers.
- Block the number that sent the message.
Many phone services have options to report a suspected scammer. You can also call the financial institution, such as SRP, directly. Financial institutions do not ask for personal information via text or phone call.
Businesses should also be aware that scammers may be using their business names in an attempt to scam people.
