Protect Yourself: How to Avoid Text Message Scams

Americans lost $330 million to fraudulent text messages in 2022, with the median loss reported by individual victims being $1,000, according to a report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Scammers use text messages to offer rewards or to trick consumers into thinking someone has accessed their bank account. The FTC advises consumers not to click links or respond to unexpected text messages and to report all suspicious texts to ReportFraud.ftc.gov or to forward the potential scam message to 7726. The most common types of text scams reported to the FTC were copycat bank fraud, bogus gifts, fake package delivery texts, phony job offers, and Amazon security alerts.