Watch Out Alabama, That Phone Call or Text May Be a Fake

Most people nowadays just have a cell phone as their primary communication method. We use our phones to pay our bills, text our friends and manage everyday life. But not every phone call or text message is actually legitimate.

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Several scams are going around, but there are two in particular that consumers need to know about.

Fake Police Officer

The first one is a phone call that appears to come from law enforcement, but it's actually a scam.

The caller will claim to be an agent of a law enforcement agency, saying you missed your court date and a warrant has been issued for your arrest. Now, this would alarm anyone.

Nobody wants to even think of getting arrested or having a warrant with their name on it. They will then tell you that you can just pay a fine, and this will all go away. This is a scam. Real law enforcement will never demand you pay over the phone.

"But the number showed up as the police..."

Scammers often will “spoof” or fake the caller ID to look as legitimate as possible. This is very easy to do with the right software. If fake phone calls were not bad enough, there are fake text messages also used to try to scam victims out of their money.

"Did I Miss a Package from The Postal Service?"

The other scam to know about is the “Your package can’t be delivered” text message. This is a creative and, depending on the time of year, effective scam. The scammer will send a text saying your package can’t be delivered until you update the address with an attached link in the message. This is a trap. Do not open the link, the postal service will never send an unsolicited link

Avoid this by keeping track of all packages through legitimate websites. Never give your personal information through an unsolicited link.