New Scam is Targeting Those Attempting to Validate Vaccine Status
The New York State Department of Health is warning people about a new text scam that's making the rounds in the Hudson Valley.
Another day and another reason to never let you guard down when it comes to responding to text messages and emails from people asking for personal information. The latest text message phishing scheme/scam according to News 10, is targeting people who are trying to validate their vaccine status.
If you've never received a phishing text message, first consider yourself lucky, second the messages usually have some sort of call to action that they want you to perform in an attempt to get our personal information to try and steal our identity. Some of these scams will also trick us into installing malicious software onto a device.
The majority of the scams will come from a phone number you wont recognize, like the one I received just yesterday asking me to validate my drivers license.
The latest scam is attacking anyone attempting to validate their vaccine status. With many employers across New York now requiring employees to be fully vaccinated, and to provide proof, the department of health announced that scammers are sending illegitimate text messages to people impersonating the DOH. The text messages are asking people to enter their information to validate their vaccination status.
The links that are included in the scam text messages are fake and the DOH has said that if you, or anyone you know receives one, they should delete it immediately. There are a few things that the NYS Office of Information Technology Services recommends we all do:
Exercise caution with all communications you receive, including those that appear to be from a trusted source
Keep an eye out for signs of phishing – poor spelling or grammar, the use of threats, the URL does not match that of the legitimate site
Don’t click on links embedded in an unsolicited message from an unverified source
Don’t send your personal information over text
Don’t post sensitive personal information online