• FREE scheme to help combat rural crime in Warwickshire.
• Receive incident alerts and news for your area.
• Crime prevention advice and information.

Warwickshire Police Warn of Bogus Texts

Warwickshire residents are reporting bogus texts, some that appear among genuine threads of texts from banks, other service providers or retailers. One Warwickshire resident reported receiving a bogus text from the Halifax bank stating that his online account would be cancelled if he didn’t log in to it via a link in the text. Another reported receiving a scam O2 text stating that ‘we were unable to process your latest payment’ and requesting the recipient ‘login in and update your information’ to ‘avoid late fees’. Again, a bogus link was provided. A third said she had received a bogus PayPal text stating that her ‘billing address needs to be updated’ and that therefore her account had been placed temporarily on hold. To ‘resolve’ the matter, again, she was directed to a scam web page via a link.
Most of these scam texts contain a link that directs the recipients to a fake login page from which usernames and passwords can be stolen. Never log into a web account via a link in an email or text. Always log in via the company official website or app.