Apr 27, 05:50 AM

Troup County and Crypto Platforms Warn of Scam Texts Including Toll Fraud, International Spoofing, and 150,000 WhatsApp Victims

A growing wave of scam text messages impersonating 'wrong number' communications has been reported across multiple regions, prompting warnings from law enforcement and consumer protection agencies. The Troup County Sheriff's Office and other authorities have alerted the public to texts that appear as innocuous messages such as “Hi, do I know you?” or “I found your number in my address book,” which are in fact attempts by scammers to engage recipients and potentially extract sensitive information. These scams have also expanded to include fraudulent toll payment requests, including fake overdue toll statements and E-ZPass reminders, as noted by experts in Las Vegas. Internationally, similar phone scams involving number spoofing have been identified in France and Finland, where criminals impersonate callers to deceive victims. Crypto-related scams have also increased, with warnings from Binance, CoinMarketCap, and KuCoin advising users not to trust unsolicited messages, avoid sharing private keys or seed phrases, and to verify wallet addresses carefully due to clipboard hijacking risks. In Brazil, over 150,000 people have fallen victim to WhatsApp scams, underscoring the global scale of these fraudulent activities. Authorities recommend not responding to suspicious texts, verifying the authenticity of messages, and reporting incidents to law enforcement to help combat these evolving scams.