ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – When State Senator Chris Head isn’t tending to business in Richmond, he’s running the home health care service Home Instead in central and western Virginia.
And with the holidays approaching, he has a heightened sense of concern about potential scams, especially those that target seniors.
“Just be very careful with what you click on, if it’s an unsolicited link,” Head told WDBJ7 Tuesday afternoon.
Like many of us, he’s received fraudulent text messages that look legit. They appear to be from the postal service or a shipping company, and ask you to click a link to ensure delivery.
“Our own receptionist in our office had gotten the exact same text message asking the exact same thing right after her son had shipped something to her she had not yet received. And so she looked at it, but fortunately she had heard this is a scam that’s going around,” Head said, “but we just want to make sure that everybody, particularly seniors are paying attention and not falling prey to this.”
The United States Postal Inspection Service is spreading the message: ‘Don’t Get Snowed by Holiday Scams.’
Ron Boyd, President and CEO of the Local Office on Aging said seniors should be on guard for a variety of fraudulent schemes.
“As anything, you need to get the back story and check it out before you do it,” Boyd said in an interview. “People are getting scammed by that and especially during the holidays right now.”
Postal inspectors have a few tips:
Be suspicious of any message requesting personal information.
Don’t click on links or respond to messages from an unknown number.
Don’t send personal or sensitive information in a text message.
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