Recently, I received a text message claiming to be from the California Franchise Tax Board (FTB). The message said my tax refund had been approved and asked me to click a link to “confirm my collection information.” It also warned that if I didn’t respond before a certain date, I would lose my refund permanently. The main goal of this scam was to steal personal and financial information. By convincing people that they were receiving a legitimate tax refund, scammers hoped victims would click the link and enter sensitive data like their bank account numbers, Social Security information, or passwords. Once obtained, this information could be used for identity theft or financial fraud. This scam works because it impersonates someone of authority, threatens victims, and out of fear and urgency people will click the attached URLs and fill out their personal information. You can tell this is fake because it comes from a random international number (+63) rather than a official FTB number, it has unusual links, and requests personal information. I inserted the text I received below:
It’s crazy how many scams are out there! I recently received an email claiming to be from a surgeon on staff asking to edit his bank info for direct deposit. I texted the surgeon to see if it was from him and of course it wasn’t.
Scams are so common nowadays! I get multiple every week asking for money and personal information. Thank you for sharing your experience!
I actually got the same text from the same number about a month ago. Like you mentioned I thought it was very weird how it had (+63) as the number, which was an easy indication that it was a scam. Thanks for raising awareness about these scams!
Exactly, these are very common, I’m glad you were able to catch it! I’m glad this post is helping to raise awareness.
Thank you for writing this article about scam prevention. I have received many of these scam messages from people claiming that they work for the DMV or USPS. They attempt to get information from me or tell me that I somehow owe them money. Thank you for bringing attention to this issue to help educate others to be safe online.
Thank you! Those fake DMV and USPS messages are everywhere lately. They can sound official, but they’re just trying to get people’s info or money. I’m glad this blog post helped raise awareness.
I can’t stand these type of scams. I got one with a similar layout recently regarding a traffic infraction and bill I had to pay. It started with the same +63 number.
It seemed plausible, but the number definitely gave them away!
These scams are getting way too common. The layout can look convincing at first, but that +63 number is such a giveaway. Glad you caught it before anything happened!