The New York State
Division of Consumer Protection (DCP) is warning New Yorkers of a text phishing
scheme targeting cell phone users with an attempt to steal their information. Fraudsters
are impersonating financial institutions claiming that a customer’s account is
compromised “due to unusual activity,” but the message is an
attempt to deceive the recipient into sharing personal information.
These scams usually work
when someone poses as a representative of a bank or financial institution to
get information such as your credit card number, bank account number or social
security number. This is known as phishing. The message usually asks the users
to confirm their account information, make a payment or claim a prize. The
link may also ask the users to click on the link inside the text, which directs
them to a phony site that looks like the financial institution’s website, or it
may install malware onto their device. Anyone
who receives a fraudulent text message should delete the message right away.
To help protect against
phishing or smishing (SMS phishing) scams, the NYS Office of Information
Technology Services (ITS) and DCP recommend the following precautions:
The things to remember
the next time you receive an unsolicited text message from a bank or financial
institution:
- Inspect the sender’s information to confirm that the
message was generated from a legitimate source, but don’t click
on the link or call the number on…
