Where there’s money to be found, someone will be trying to get it, and judging by the volume of attempts it’s likely a profitable business in east-central Wisconsin. Sheriff’s offices throughout the region are reporting floods of scam messages being sent to random targets. Many warn of outstanding arrest warrants, some claim missed jury duty, and others now appearing with increasing frequency tell the target that they have unpaid tolls. That one should be an easy call, since Wisconsin doesn’t have a single toll road. But those, and many others, can still look entirely official and the phone numbers displayed can copy official numbers you’d find through a web search. But that’s just a display, and not the real number of the sender.
According to the website slicktext.com, 19.2 billion spam texts went out in February this year alone. And while the number of actual scam phone calls in the first half of 2023 had declined by 21% compared to the year before, the number of texts increased by 18%, nearly offsetting the decline in calls. And, painfully enough, 21% of Americans have reported losing money to text message scams at some point, illustrating the profitability of the business.
Of course, the ultimate step in foiling the bad actors is to know when to either ignore a call, or to hang up – two guaranteed methods that leave the scammers empty-handed.
If you receive such an approach, you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, with the Federal Communications Commission at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov, or to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
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