If you receive an unknown text or email when you are not expecting any form of communication, Security Savings Bank Vice President Dorothy Ricketts says not to respond immediately as that should raise a red flag:
“If you are not expecting some sort of communication, you don’t have to respond immediately, especially if it is coming by a text or an email; why would this entity have your phone number to send a text or your email, have you ever provided it in the past, you have to apply some logic to some of these things,” states Ricketts.
“The other thing is, I personally have been getting, which means I’m sure people in the area are getting too, is texts like crazy. The bad actors just send them out to hundreds of thousands of people, and it fits for maybe ten thousand of those people may respond. If you ever get a text from Amazon that says you are subject to a recall or that says your account has been charged $495 and if it is a valid charge, don’t respond to the text. If it could be something that affects you, go to your Amazon account and look at that specifically to see if there is activity taking place on there,” Ricketts advises.
Ricketts informs there are also fraudulent texts circulating that are claiming to be from your healthcare plan providers saying they will cover three months of the GLP-1, better known as Ozempic. Do not respond to these texts or click on the link provided in the message.
