For years, consumers have had to deal with an onslaught of robocalls. The St. Louis Consumer Fraud Task Force (CFTF) warns consumers to be just as cautious with spam text messages.
The spammer’s goal with the text message is no different than when they call you – they want to trick you into giving them your personal information. If you supply them with your password, account number, or Social Security number, they could gain access to your accounts, sell that information to others, or steal your identity.
The scammers will offer bait such as free prizes, gift cards, or coupons in the body of the text messages, but these offers are fake. They may also act as if they are your financial institution or a shipping company or indicate something is wrong with an invoice for something you allegedly purchased. If you want to investigate claims made in a text message, call a trusted number for that institution (not one provided through the text message) and report the message.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in March 2023 adopted its first rule focused on scam text messages. The rule bans text messages sent to a mobile phone using an autodialer unless the recipient previously gave consent to receive the message.
“Data shows consumers read nearly all texts, and do so nearly immediately, whereas calls from unknown callers are often ignored by consumers,” the FCC wrote in its order for the new rule. “While some text messages may present similar problems as unwanted calls – they invade consumer privacy and are vehicles for consumer fraud and identity theft.”
According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), bank fraud warnings were the most common text message scam reported to the agency in 2022. Consumers reported losing $330 million in text message scams in 2022, more than doubling what was reported in 2021. Other popular text message scams reported to the FTC included offering a gift, bogus package delivery issues, phony job offers, and fake Amazon security alerts.
The Task Force and BBB St. Louis recommend the following to avoid unwanted text messages:
- Do not engage. Ignore unwanted text messages that come from questionable sources. Check with your service provider to see if they have blocking technology that you can utilize.
- Don’t share. Be careful about giving out your mobile phone number or other personal information. The more you share your number, the more likely you are to be targeted by scammers.
- Read the fine print. Carefully read through commercial web forms and check for a privacy policy when submitting your mobile phone number to any consumer website. You should be able to opt out of receiving text messages, but you may have to check or uncheck a preselected box to opt-out.
- Ask questions. Find out if any company you do business with has a policy allowing it to sell or share your information.
- Report the bad actors. You can report bad actors to BBB, the FCC, the FTC, and your state’s attorney general. You can also copy the message and forward it to 7726. This helps your wireless provider spot and block similar messages in the future.
The Task Force, formed in October 2002, is a coalition of local, state, and federal government agencies and nonprofit business and consumer groups in Missouri and Illinois that work together to protect consumer and donor rights and guard against fraud. The group has tackled predatory payday loan offers, tax scams, timeshare fraud, credit repair and foreclosure scams, bogus sweepstakes, internet sweetheart scams, phony grant scams, home remodeling, elder fraud, payment scams and a variety of other issues.
For information or to report a scam, contact members of the Task Force:
- Better Business Bureau Serving Eastern and Southwest Missouri and Southern Illinois – (888) 996-3887; www.BBB.org
- Federal Trade Commission – (877) FTC-HELP (382-4357); www.ftc.gov
- Federal Bureau of Investigations – (314) 589-2500
- Illinois Attorney General – (800) 243-0618; www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov
- Illinois Secretary of State - Securities Department – 800-628-7937
- Missouri Attorney General – (800) 392-8222; www.ago.mo.gov
- St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department – (314) 231-1212; www.slmpd.org
- U.S. Attorney, Eastern District of Missouri – (314) 539-2200; www.usdoj.gov/usao/moe
- U.S. Postal Inspection Service – (877) 876-2455; postalinspectors.uspis.gov
- U.S. Secret Service – (314) 539-2238; www.secretservice.gov
