EDITORIAL: Nasty text scams surface in N. Idaho

Reported phone scams in the United States amounted to nearly $30 billion in 2021.

But the real number? Nobody knows. Nobody can even hazard a semi-accurate guess, because so many victims never report the crime.

Generally, they’re ashamed. They look back on the scam, which generally amounts to hundreds or thousands of dollars, and in that brutally honest mirror of retrospection can see how gullible they were.

Thieves generally use one of two weapons in cheating people, many of them elderly: fear or greed. Both are exceedingly effective if the bad guys can make their victims panic.

Your phone can save your life in an emergency, but it also can be a dangerous device when evil people are intent on preying on you.

In just the last couple weeks, North Idahoans have reported a number of text scams that, like most crimes, contain some fairly clear fingerprints if you, the detective, are alert. Text scams are frequently created by criminals who didn’t earn degrees in English.

Example 1: A local reader shared a bogus text that began this way:

Your Apple ID has been locked. We have locked your Apple ID because our service has detected two unauthorized devices.

To unlock your account, you required verify your Apple ID.

Did you notice the grammatical flaws in the second paragraph? That’s a big hint that someone other than Apple is trying to get into your wallet.

Example 2: The first sentence is all you need to smell a rat.

As a security check against your Venmo account has been disable.

Hopefully, you don’t need someone to point out how butchered that sentence is. It’s another clear indication that a legitimate company is not communicating with you. (Either that or Mrs. Language Person really has her work cut out for her.)

While various scams and frauds can be rather ingenious, some of the best advice to put villains out of business is to adopt the practice of applying common sense. Follow these tips from the Federal Trade Commission:

Block unwanted calls and text messages. Take steps to block unwanted calls and to filter unwanted text messages.

Don’t give your personal or financial information in response to a request that you didn’t expect. Honest organizations won’t call, email, or text to ask for your personal information, like your Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers.

If you get an email or text message from a company you do business with and you think it’s real, it’s still best not to click on any links. Instead, contact them using a website you know is trustworthy. Or look up their phone number. Don’t call a number they gave you or the number from your caller ID.

Resist the pressure to act immediately. Honest businesses will give you time to make a decision. Anyone who pressures you to pay or give them your personal information is a scammer.

Know how scammers tell you to pay. Never pay someone who insists you pay with cryptocurrency, a wire transfer service like Western Union or MoneyGram, or a gift card. And never deposit a check and send money back to someone.

Stop and talk to someone you trust. Before you do anything else, tell someone — a friend, a family member, a neighbor — what happened. Talking about it could help you realize it’s a scam.