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Police warn about text scam
By Stephanie Flemmons, Staff Writer
Plano police are warning all citizens to be aware of a text message scam asking subscribers to reveal personal information.
The scam hit an unknown amount of Sprint subscribers late last week and said that their debit card had been deactivated. The text message gave four different phone numbers asking the subscriber to call in order to reactivate. Since the scam was revealed, all four numbers have been disconnected.
“There is no telling how many people got those text messages,” said Rick McDonald, Plano police spokesman. “The motive for identity theft is monetary gain. We want everyone to be advised this is happening and make sure you do not communicate personal information over the phone to anyone.”
“We get hit by spam messages that are scam related all the time,” she said. “We have security measures that filter out 99 percent of the spam messages. This happens all over the nation.”
Davis said outside parties obtain Sprint-owned numbering systems that Sprint or any provider may own. In this recent scam, the outside party targeted 214 area codes and used Sprint-owned prefixes. The scammer then plugged these numbers into a database with every possible last four digit number that hit.
“Every state has a different numbering system,” Davis said. “Depending on the area code, they are able to obtain a block of numbers.”
The text message also read that ResourceOne CreditUnion was the sender of the message.
George Colunga, ResourceOne Credit Union customer service representative, said to disregard the text message and inform the authorities.
“We are the victim here,” Colunga said. “Apparently they are using our name to try to convince random people to call them and convince them to give their personal information.”
McDonald said always conduct financial issues in person at your bank.
“”If they were your true bank they would have your account number or PIN number,” McDonald said. “No respectable business would ask for personal information over the telephone.”
Sprint encourages customers to report spam by forwarding spam text messages directly by calling Customer Care at *2 on their Sprint phones and 611 on their Nextel phones.
“Sprint continually enhances its filtering technology and works with federal and state policymakers on measures to protect consumers from unwanted messages,” Davis said. “One way consumers can help reduce mobile spam is by reporting it to us whenever they receive an unsolicited text message, which they did not provide their permission to receive.”
Contact Sprint’s Office of Privacy at officeofpriacy@sprint.com with any concerns.
Contact Stephanie Flemmons at sflemmons@acnpapers.com
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