Greg's Corner

Text scam affects the unemployed

By Greg Collier

It’s no secret the economy is in disarray. It’s affecting those collecting unemployment harder, since unemployment payments aren’t going as far as they used to. That’s not even considering that unemployment benefits aren’t sustainable for most recipients to begin with. Of course, leave it to scammers to try to take from those who have very little to give.

We’ve seen reports from two states, West Virginia and South Carolina, who have reported residents who have received text messages that appear to come from each states’ unemployment division. However, the text messages in both states are identical.

The text message says, “Your Back-to-work payment of $4,200.00 is now available, click on to receive payment.” The URL in the text messages are disguised to look like the message came from a .gov address, but if you look closer, you can see the address actually ends in .com. If someone were to click the link, they would be taken to a website that looks like the state’s unemployment website. That website asks the recipient to enter their personal details. This could lead to identity theft or having their unemployment benefits stolen.

Since this scam is occurring in at least two states, it could be only a matter of time before it’s in all states. If you’ll recall, the previous unemployment scam that occurred during lockdown swept across the country like wildfire.

To our knowledge, no state is offering a ‘back-to-work’ payment through their unemployment divisions. The scammers are trying to convince their victims that state governments are issuing additional economic impact payments, like the federal government issued last year.

If you receive a text like this, it’s advised to delete the message and not click on any links contained in the message. If you’ve already given your information to an unemployment scammer, you should contact your state’s unemployment office right away to let them know.