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GREENSBORO, N.C. — When you get a text message and the sender uses your name, you might give the sender more credit. That’s what the scammers are hoping for.
VERIFY: Are personalized text messages from a Facebook employee for real?
SOURCES: Facebook, The Better Business Bureau, and Google reverse image search.
INFORMATION:
The text messages received were from an unsaved number that the viewer had not initiated. But the sender refers to her by name.
The BBB warns not to trust unsolicited text messages from strangers. Just because a text message is personalized does not mean the sender is trustworthy.
The same text says there’s been suspicious activity on the Facebook account, it might be terminated, and they need confirmation of the true owner.
Facebook’s site has a page dedicated to avoiding scams on Facebook. It specifically warns about messages claiming to be from their company, alerting you of supposed issues with your account.
Now, what about that image of what’s supposed to be a Facebook employee ID badge? The BBB’s Pamela Anson says, “If you receive an unsolicited text message from an unknown number, you can do a reverse image search to see if the image was used on other websites or reported as spam.”
When Google Reverse Image search was used, it showed this site showing an ID Badge template that looks exactly like the one received.
VERIFIED: THESE MESSAGES ARE NOT LEGITIMATE.
They’re designed to steal personal information from the recipient.
This is just one of the many scams. Here’s a way to look at any text you get:
Jackson put this out to help folks see the difference between a real toll text and a fake toll text. When you look at the real text, it shows it is coming from a number that does not look like a telephone number or an email.
The fake text always comes from a 10-digit regular phone number or an email address. The fake text always points you to a link or phone number so you can pay. That’s the big red flag.
The NC AG says he gets these texts, too, and he doesn’t want you to ignore them.
“When they try to scam the Attorney General for North Carolina, you know they’re casting this net as broad as they can. They’re catching a lot of people, unfortunately. There are two things that you can do that are really helpful. One, make a report to our office, which lets us know when there is an uptick in these scams. But the other thing you can do is tell your friends and family,” said Jackson.
So often, we think everyone knows about the scams going around, so we don’t talk about it, or we don’t want our friends or family members to