Thieves will use just about anything to trick you into sending them money. This time a would-be scammer messaged both Investigator Amy Davis and producer Andrea Slaydon. (You are messing with the wrong ladies!)
👉We explain the signs to look for to identify scam messages. Plus, which company the federal government says is most frequently impersonated.
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Fake Amazon, Direct-TV messages
It’s not always easy to tell if the person calling or messaging you is legit. Scammers have now figured out how to change the caller ID, so you may actually think the call is real.
Question: One viewer named Shirley says she received a phone call from someone saying they were with Direct-TV. They offered her a customer special, but said she needed to pay $300 upfront.
“I hung up and called Direct-TV. They said they are not offering a promotion like this. Please let people know this scam is active in our area,” said Shirley.
Michael from Bay City says a similar thing happened to him, but in his case the person calling knew his account information and asked for him to send money using eBay cards.
Answer: Asking for payment in the form of a gift card is a huge red flag. This is almost always a scam. You will also never be asked to pay a large amount of money upfront for a special deal. If you ever question if a call, text, or email is legit, do not respond. You can contact the company in question directly to ask about special offers or deals.
The KPRC 2 Investigates team has also been targeted by would-be scammers. We caught the scam and wanted to show you all what to look for when getting text messages from someone pretending to be with Amazon.
One version says they need $716 for an order that was not placed. There are some warning signs to look out for on this one. You can see Amazon is spelled with a zero instead of an “o.” Also, the phone number used to send the text message doesn’t match the number in the message.
👉The Federal Trade Commission says right now Amazon is the most frequently impersonated business.
Each time you get a text or voicemail, you should report it to your phone provider before blocking the number in your phone. Each phone carrier has a different way you can block numbers from your phone. It’s usually as easy as choosing the option from the call record on your phone. You can also check for more details from your provider from the links included here.