All articles tagged with #text message scams
Cybercriminals are now using portable fake cell towers called SMS blasters that can send up to 100,000 texts per hour, impersonate any sender, and target phones within a large radius, making scams more widespread and harder to detect, with recent incidents reported across Asia, Europe, and South America.
Scam texts offering fake jobs are increasing, exploiting people's unemployment worries and the rise of online work, with scammers using sophisticated AI to craft convincing messages. These scams often seek personal data or money, and the vulnerable, especially younger generations and those anxious about jobs, are prime targets. Despite efforts, combating these scams remains challenging due to limited coordination among authorities and telecom companies, emphasizing the importance of vigilance and skepticism among consumers.
The Federal Trade Commission has released a list of the five most common text message scams, which include copycat bank fraud alerts, bogus gifts, fake package delivery problems, phony job offers, and fake retailer security alerts. Consumers are advised to keep a sharp eye on the texts they receive and to call or go to a website they know is real if they are unsure. Text message scams took consumers for $330 million in 2022, according to reports in the FTC's Consumer Sentinel database. Scam texts can be reported to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or by forwarding them to 7726 (SPAM).
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.