By TOM LATEK, Kentucky Today
FRANKFORT, Ky. (KT) – The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has issued a warning about a text alert scam and urges those who receive the message to follow the attorney general’s guidance on identity theft.
The Cabinet says the text message that was reported to them is a “phishing” attempt impersonating a state agency.
Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails or other forms of electronic communications, such as text messages, purporting to be from reputable companies or agencies, in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
In this case, the text message includes a link, and the sender is listed as "KYDOT." In Kentucky, the agency is not called the Department of Transportation as is the case in some other states, and normally uses the abbreviation KYTC.
Officials warn that the text message is not from the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and recipients are warned not to click the link that asks for personal information. The Cabinet does not send text messages that solicit personal information of any nature.
Victims who have submitted any personal information are advised to visit the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General website, ag.ky.gov, to follow their guidance concerning potential identity theft.
According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, they received 467,361 complaints in 2019—an average of nearly 1,300 every day—and recorded more than $3.5 billion in losses to individual and business victims.
The most frequently reported complaints were phishing and similar ploys, non-payment/non-delivery scams, and extortion. The most financially costly complaints involved business email compromise, romance or confidence fraud, and spoofing, which is mimicking the account of a person, business or government agency known to the victim to gather personal or financial information.
A screenshot of one of the phishing messages purportedly from the Transportation Cabinet accompanies this story.