CLEVELAND — An eye-opening consumer alert, as the scramble to knock out all that back-to-school shopping gets underway.
As a parent of two school-aged children myself, I know the lists are long and the money is in short supply. A combination that could put parents at risk.
"Scammers really like to take advantage when we are distracted that way, not just when we're trying to save our dollars, but also our minds are elsewhere," said Aerial Reid.
Reid is with GCH Technologies. Her company helps facilitate those short codes we all get via text messages for coupon codes or pin numbers for logging into our bank.
She told me scammers are targeting parents with messages designed to steal login credentials and other personal information.
"We've been seeing things like your child's tuition is overdue. Login here to be able to make sure that your information is up to date to secure their spot or your child's bus schedule has changed. Click here to see the new bus schedule. Log in to access," said Reid.
Even if you don't have a child going back to school, here is important information to keep in mind.
Short codes are typically five or six digit phone numbers that Reid said consumers can typically trust, because there's a whole vetting process behind the scenes that makes it harder for a scammer to utilize.
I learned we should be especially cautious when messages come from unfamiliar ten-digit phone numbers. Those numbers are easy to obtain.
That's why we should always be leery of those texts -- especially if they contain an urgent, you must act now message.
