PITTSBURGH — Scammers are changing the way they try to steal your banking information.
Officials say even if it looks real, contact the bank before you do anything else.
Two local women say they almost fell victim to fake messages from Huntington Bank and PNC.
“I was almost fooled. Normally I can spot them right away, especially when I get a text from a bank that I don’t bank with. I’m like that’s a scam,” said Erin Plavecsky.
“It looked very official and I think anytime your account is locked people are busy. I think we live in a society where we are just going to click on something and get it out of the way, right?” said Molly Sinclair.
Plavecsky and Sinclair say they both came close to clicking the links in the messages because they do business with both banks.
Sinclair says she’s been receiving similar messages for weeks.
Both women told Channel 11 they contacted their bank to make sure the text messages were real.
“So I contacted PNC, their scam department or whatever. ‘Hey, is this from you guys?’ They said no. They confirmed what I thought,” said Plavecksy.
“It looked very official with another link which I didn’t click on. But when I went to that bank’s website, the first thing on the page was scam alert,” said Sinclair.
According to the FBI’s website, this type of phishing scam is called smishing because it came through as a text message. Authorities say once you click on the link, it could take you to a website that looks…
