Experts warn against text fraud as people look for jobs

This year, $163 million has been lost text fraud scams, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). There were nearly 90,000 reports of fraud with the median lost being $1,053 per incident.

“We’re all being bombarded with these things every day,” Quinnipiac University's Cybersecurity Program Director Frederick Scholl said.

The texts come in all forms including, fake jobs opportunities, delivery package schemes, unpaid tolls scams, and even fake fraud alerts from people posing as your bank.

“If you do fall victim to a scam like this, the first thing is don’t feel bad about it,” Connecticut’s Consumer Protection’s Director of Communications Kaitlyn Krasselt said. “A lot of these scams are really sophisticated, and they get better with time.”

Director of Connecticut Institute of Technology at the University of New Haven Tirthankar Ghosh said most of the scams are generated by artificial intelligence and look realistic.

“Any communication coming through a text message, you should take it with a pinch of salt,” Ghosh said.

The FTC said people can take several steps to protect themselves against text scams:

• Search for jobs from legit sources.
• Do research on anyone or any company offering you a job.
• Block unwanted numbers or text.
• Avoid clicking on links and responding to text from numbers you don’t recognize.

“Everybody is susceptible to these kind of things, no matter how smart you might think you are,” Scholl said.