CAYUGA COUNTY – According to the Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office, scams perpetrated through SMS (text) messaging in an attempt to gain your personal information seem to be a growing problem.
These are known as phishing or smishing (SMS phishing) scams. Scammers will send a fraudulent text message to random cell phone numbers that include a link, hoping that the unsuspecting victim will click on the link and provide personal information that is being requested.
Over the past few months these types of messages have been sent appearing that they are coming from the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles asking for the potential victim to click on a link and provide personal information that the scammer can then use to gain access to the victim’s personal accounts and information.
In the past few weeks we have begun to see fraudulent texts being sent to people living in Cayuga County that appear to be related to a pending pistol permit application, or one that the potential victim may already have. For those receiving these messages that do not have a pistol permit, or a pending application with Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office, it is clear that the message does not pertain to them.
For those that do however, they may be tempted to click on a link in the message and provide personal information. These text messages should be deleted immediately. Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office DOES NOT utilize text messaging to request information related to pistol permits, nor to update the status of an application.
Some examples of the fraudulent texts are provided below:
To help protect against phishing or smishing (SMS phishing) scams, the NYS Office of Information Technology Services (ITS) recommends the following precautions:
- DO exercise caution with all communications you receive, including those that appear to be from a trusted entity. Inspect the sender’s information to confirm the message was generated from a legitimate source.
- DO keep an eye out for telltale signs of phishing – poor spelling or grammar, the use of threats, the URL does not match that of the legitimate site. If the message does not feel right, chances are it is not.
- DON’T click on links embedded in an unsolicited message from an unverified source.
- DON’T send your personal information via text. Legitimate businesses will not ask users to send sensitive personal information through text message.
- DON’T post sensitive information online. The less information you post, the less data you make available to a cybercriminal for use in developing a potential attack or scam.
These are just a few examples of the many phishing scams utilizing text messaging to steal your sensitive information; however, the do’s and don’ts above can be used to spot others and prevent the loss of your personal information.
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