A message from Brandon police warns about another text scam making its way through the city.
BPS spokesperson Kirby Sararas says “you may have received an email or a text message similar to the one I recently received on the cell phone I use, which is assigned to me in my position with Brandon Police Service. Yes, the scammers contact us too; sometimes they even call me on my desk phone here in the office.”
The text read: ‘PAYROLL CA: $354.42 is ready to accept. Reply ‘Y’ to receive or ’N’ to cancel.’
Sararas says had she clicked on the link, it might have prompted her to update banking information or input direct deposit information, and the link also could have made the phone vulnerable to malware.
She says “The best way to protect yourself against these types of frauds is to be aware of unsolicited text messages or emails. Install anti-virus software on your computers (and) watch out for emails with formatting and grammatical errors, and be wary of clicking on any attachments or links which may contain spyware or viruses.”
