JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) – Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood released a message urging state consumers to use caution when receiving email or text messages that appear to come from a business or bank.
Hood announced this message after some consumers were targets of an email purportedly from a Memphis-based financial institution that was actually a scam attempting to gain access to financial information. This process that scammers use is known as phishing.
Hood told consumers to always contact their banks or credit unions directly to double-check the validity of any text messages or emails they receive.
“As we rely more and more on technology in our daily lives, scammers respond with increasingly sophisticated ways to use technology to cheat and steal,” Hood said. “Fortunately, there are often some red flags that can help consumers spot these brazen attempts at fraud and identity theft.”
Hood encourages consumers to check for errors in any unsolicited text or email and to never provide personal or financial information via text or email. Additionally, legitimate institutions would never ask you to “verify” information such as bank account or credit card numbers as that information is generated and maintained within the institution.