Phony text messages purporting to be from your bank is a scam about which I have been warning you for more than five years. Recently many customers of California’s Montecito Bank and Trust have been receiving text messages appearing to come from their bank asking for debit card information that the message indicates must be provided in order to avoid having the customer’s account suspended. The text message is from a scammer and if you respond with your debit card information, the scammer will be able to steal the money from the bank account tied to your debit card.
Text messages like this can be particularly problematic if you have signed up to receive text message alerts from your bank. However, whenever you receive a text message you can never be sure who is really sending it to you, so you should never provide information or click on links in such text messages which may either download ransomware malware on to your phone or keystroke logging malware that can lead to your becoming a victim of identity theft. In this particular text message scam, you are in danger of providing your personal information directly to the scammer that can be used to access your accounts. The best course of action when you receive such a text message if you have a concern that it may be legitimate is to merely independently contact your bank to determine whether or not the text message was a scam, but be careful that you do not misdial the telephone number of your bank as some scammers purchase phone numbers similar to those of legitimate banks and credit card companies hoping that they will receive calls from unwary consumers who may have merely misdialed the telephone number of their bank or credit card company.
TIPS
Regardless of how official such a text message may appear, you should never provide personal information to anyone in response to a telephone call, email or text message because in none of those situations can you be sure that the person contacting you is legitimate. If you do receive a communication from a bank, government agency or any other person or entity that you think might have a legitimate need for personal information from you, you should call the real entity at a telephone number that you know is legitimate in order to ascertain the truth. Banks do not call, text or email their customers asking for personal information. You should always be skeptical of anyone asking for such information. As I always say, “trust me, you can’t trust anyone.”
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