East Texas law enforcement agencies warning people about potential phishing scams

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) - Tyler PD is warning East Texans about the potential dangers of online schemes looking to collect data people in the form of text messages or emails.

New schemes known as phishing scams, named after their attempts at catching victims and reeling them in, are taking new messaging forms like texting or email.

“What they’re doing is they’re trying to get you to click a link, if you double click on an email or you click on a link, or on a web page, they got you,” Tyler PD, Public Information Officer, Andy Erbaugh.

One of the ways scammers are looking to collect financial information from people is by claiming to be a federal agency, like the IRS. It will look like an email or call to people telling them they owe money to the IRS. Erbaugh says if federal agencies need to get ahold of someone, they will send an official letter in the mail to inform them of any changes to their information or a collection of funds.

One of the obstacles law enforcement agencies face is when hackers are overseas are the ones behind the keyboard.

“For us as a local agency, I can go to Tennessee to follow up on a criminal case,” Erbaugh said. “99 percent of them are international suspects.”

Tom Roberts, a professor of computer science at UT Tyler, says almost a quarter of these scams are successful.

“As far as the batting average on being successful I’d put it at 20-25 percent,” Roberts said. “Unfortunately, we’ll probably will never really know that number.”

Roberts says phishing scams happen in two ways: people believe the link is a legitimate and click on it or they will click on the link while they’re in a rush.

“The key to protecting yourself is vigilance,” Roberts said. “Anything you see that you don’t trust, delete the email before even clicking on it at all.”

On the law enforcement side, Erbaugh says there are a few ways to easily spot a scam if it ever comes to the phone:

• Checking the message source. If the message comes from a source that is unfamiliar to you, delete it immediately.
• Checking the message for errors. If there are any weird or unusual characters or spelling in the message,
• Hovering over a link without clicking it. If the message comes from an official source, their name is bound to be in the link. Scams will have a “safelink” or other characters that would have other information in the URL.

If you find yourself becoming the victim of a phishing scam you are urged to contact Tyler PD immediately.