Beware of Tricky Texting Scam
-->By: Michaela MacDonald
Updated: January 15, 2013
These texts promise a $1,000 gift card to target, best buy and other popular stores all you have to do is click the link. If you realize it's a scam and try to stop the spam texts, you may be opening up a can of worms.
"Don't reply to it with stop or you know opt out or anything like that all that is going to do is just validate to the scammer that there is an actual person on the other end of that number," said Greg Linde, President and CEO of the South Plains BBB.
Linder says this texting scam has been around for a while. He says many people fall it, thinking it's really the brand name they trust.
"There are people that just see bestbuy.com they don't see the .biz slash whatever else there is going on, and it looks like it might be something legitimate but its not," said Linder.
"They actually usually tend to come from places that I have shopped and so I've almost established a relationship with those companies," said Kacie Phillips, who didn't fall for the scam.
Phillips says even though it looks like companies she shops with, she didn't believe it.
"I've actually received numerous of these scams and I just know that I dont believe them personally because they are not coming from the actual number that is corresponding to the website or the company," said Phillips.
But even if you realize it's a scam, if you try to stop the spam texts you may be making matters worse.
"Sometimes just replying with anything on there they will use that as their way of saying you gave permission for them to start charging your phone," said Linder.
Linder says if you've responded in anyway to these texts, you need to start scrutinizing your cell phone bill and credit report.
"We've seen charges anywhere from a dollar to ten to 20 dollars a month that are getting added on for some service that you have no idea what it is but it just gets added on to your phone bill," he said.
He says the best plan of action is to ignore the texts, and if you get a spam message, delete it.
Linder says, of course this isn't the only scam out there that's taking advantage of technology, but for more tips to protect yourself from all types of scams you can visit their website BBB.org.
