Kaufman County residents are being urged to be careful after a recent wave of fraudulent messages in the area. Authorities said scammers are increasingly posing as legitimate organizations, government agencies and utility providers to get money or sensitive personal information.
Officials said scam messages often create a false sense of urgency and push people to act before they can check the facts. Scammers often ask for payment by gift card, wire transfer or cryptocurrency, which officials said are hard to trace and nearly impossible to recover. Scammers also frequently pretend to be local law enforcement, utility companies or government offices.
Law enforcement officials advise residents to hang up or delete suspicious calls and texts and not to reply or click any links. If a message seems possibly real, officials say people should not use the contact information in it. Instead, they should go to the agency's official website or call a known phone number. If targeted, officials recommend not sending money, not giving out Social Security or bank account numbers, and reporting and blocking the sender.