HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) – Law enforcement say a strange text involving a photo of a woman appears to try to lure the recipient into a conversation is the latest phishing scheme designed to lure recipients to give away personal information.
“Scammers send out a text attempting to get a reply back which then shows the scammer that it is a legitimate working phone number, then they start trying to have a conversation with you and obtaining your personal information,” said LT. Whitney Mauck of the Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office.
The Shenandoah County Sheriff’s Office said people should not respond to the message and should block the number. The same goes for any other strange texts from unknown numbers.
The message has not been linked to any human trafficking.
“In our county thus far we’ve not had any reports of any sex trafficking coming from that or anyone obtaining people’s locations,” said Lt. Mauck.
Instead, the scammers have tried to use the message to try to solicit nude photos from people to use for blackmail.
“It’s mainly just been messages being sent, pictures being sent back and forth. Once they retrieve your information, then they start the extortion process,” said Mauck.
New Creation is a non-profit store in Harrisonburg dedicated to fighting human trafficking.
They say trends online have highlighted similar texting scams as a way to identify someone’s location and lure them into trafficking but that they have seen no proof of these claims.
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