Cedar Rapids Mayor and Others Warn of Text scam

The internet is great, with billions of terabytes of data being passed all over the world.  Having the world at your fingertips on your phone is pretty amazing and with those come trolls.  Not the cool and fun trolls that we see in the movies.  These trolls want to make our internet and smartphone experience a mess.   

Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell recently revealed that one of her colleagues received a text message from someone impersonating her. O’Donnell shared the fraudulent message on Facebook, which read: “Hi Morgan, I’m in a conference right now, can’t talk on phone, but let me know if you get my text. Thanks, Tiffany O’Donnell.” 

She expressed her frustration, saying, “Now we have to worry about fake texts? Phone calls with our voice? The world we live in.” 

This issue is not isolated to Cedar Rapids. Other local cities are also grappling with similar scams. The City of Swisher's official Facebook page has reported that some residents have received texts asking them to complete a two-minute survey about the city. Swisher officials emphasize that any legitimate surveys will always be announced on the city’s Facebook page. Residents are advised not to click on any links in suspicious texts. The City of Oxford has issued a similar warning, and earlier this week, officials in Tiffin alerted the public to a comparable text scam posing as a city survey. 

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According to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission), Scammers often try to get you to click on links in text messages by promising you something. Scammers might 

• promise free prizes, gift cards, or coupons — but they’re not real 

• offer you a low or no interest credit card — but there’s no deal and probably no card 

• promise to help you pay off your student loans — but they won’t 

Scammers also send fake messages that say they have information about your account or a transaction. Scammers might 

• say they’ve noticed some suspicious activity on your account — but they haven’t 

• claim there’s a problem with your payment information — but there isn’t 

• send you a fake invoice and tell you to contact them if you didn’t authorize the purchase — but it’s a scam 

• send you a package delivery notification — but it’s fake 

The messages might ask you to give some personal information — like how much money you make, how much you owe, or your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number — to claim your gift or pursue the offer. Or they might tell you to click on a link to learn more about the issue. Some links might take you to a spoofed website that looks real but isn’t. If you log in, the scammers then might steal your username and password.