With many holiday packages still to be delivered, the United States Postal Service is warning people new to receiving text messages on a smart phone not to fall for “smishing” scams.
Smishing texts appear to come from the USPS, but the postal service does not send unsolicited text messages about packages, and the fraudulent texts are likely trying to obtain your personal information. Comments from John Hyatt, strategic communication specialist, United States Postal Service.
Many folks in California are still expecting holiday packages this week, and the US Postal Service is warning customers not to fall for “smishing” scams. Smishing, says John Hyatt with the USPS, is the practice of sending fake text messages to smart phones asking users to click on a link to resolve a zip code or other issue with a pending package. He warns personal data is what the sender is after.
“Basically criminals trying to obtain personally identifying information about a person, such as accounts, user names, passwords, dates of birth, credit card numbers – things like that.”
The Superior Court of California in Sacramento recently issued a warning about a different kind of smishing scam where fraudsters claim to be officers of the court and falsely claim that the victim’s car was caught on camera speeding through a school zone, then offer a link to settle it without a court appearance.
Smishing texts can be relentless this time of year, but Hyatt says you should never follow the message prompts. “When you get a suspicious text message, if you click on those links, it will take you to a website that could be downloading onto your phone and once you submit that information then they use it for nefarious purposes.”
Instead of quoting Teddy Roosevelt, I recommend we go further back to Thomas Payne, a founding father, who opined in his pamphlet “Common Sense”, that if a government passes a law that is contrary to an individual’s moral or ethical beliefs, it is not only their right, but their responsibility, to practice civil disobedience and never adhere to the evils of government. Only by ensuring individual freedom to live as one sees fit, can a society thrive. And I will never follow laws that are being manipulated by a group of convicted felons for their own greed. The irony of MAGAtts makes me nauseous.