Look Out, New Jersey – A Dangerous New Texting Scam is On the Rise

These scammers think of everything.

Beware, New Jersey.  Yet another scam is on the rise.

This time, they're targeting you by pretending to be a company known for its safe transactions - PayPal.

The other morning, my Mom texted me that she got one of these messages. I'm glad she did because I was able to reassure her that it was fake, and not to click on any links.

She's not the only one who received the deceiving text.  A bunch of her friends had gotten it as well, which is why I thought it'd be a good idea to warn you about it.

Before I show you a picture of the message, I wanted to give you some tips on how to spot these.  These tips ultimately made me figure out this was a fake message right away.

How do you spot a scam text message?

A dead giveaway that a text message is a scam is poor grammar.  The example I'll show had improper capitalization and punctuation.  A real company would never let that pass.

Another thing to watch out for is spelling errors in the company's name.  The text my Mom received was from someone claiming to be PayPal, but the message was from "PayPals-Service."  That's clearly wrong.

Finally, take a look at the link (but don't click anything!) and the number the text is coming from.  If they're a long string of letters and numbers, and it doesn't look like a valid email address or website, DO NOT CLICK IT.

It's also a good idea to give the company a phone call or contact them through their website if you're unsure about a text you received.  Again, never click any suspicious links, and don't reply to or call the person who contacted you.

Here's a picture of the text my Mom received.  I censored any links and contact info to protect anyone from any potential scamming.

Stay safe out there.  These scammers sure are crafty!