A Burnaby homeowner is warning others about a new scam affecting people in the community via their email.
Many homeowners are signed up to receive emails from the company hired by their building layer to manage it. These residents often receive emails from the strata company.
Terry is one of those people and so she was not surprised to get an email about strata issues. This email said the layers had hired a new company to manage the building and that residents should sign up via the email by clicking on a link.
“I thought it was legal,” Terry said. “We have replaced the strata leaders before and I thought this happened because we have been dissatisfied with the management. But I do not follow the meetings closely and therefore I was not aware that it was not going on. And so “I clicked on the link and a lot of other owners have fallen victim. People need to be aware of that.”
The Better Business Bureau warns against clicking on links from sources you do not know.
BBB has shared the following tips on how to deal with text message or email scams:
- Do not believe every text you receive. As a general rule, companies can not send you text messages unless you choose to receive them. If you receive an SMS from a company that you have not given permission to contact you in this way, proceed with caution. In fact, any unsolicited text message should be considered as a potential scam.
- Know the classic signs of texting scam. In most cases, the text message contains an unusual link and may promise a reward, threaten a penalty, or generally appear harmless because it appears to come from a person or organization you recognize.
- Think before you click. Do not click on links in strange or suspicious text messages. This is probably an attempt to gain access to your personal information or install malware on your device.
- Confirm the information. If an offer seems strange or too good to be true, contact the company directly by looking up their official contact information online. Call or email customer service to find out if the text message you received is legitimate.
- Ignore the instructions for the text “STOP” or “NO”. Even if you realize that the message is a scam, do not send an SMS back for any reason. Scammers might want you to text back to confirm that your phone number is active. Block instead of the number so you will not receive messages from it in the future.
- Double down on security. If the text message was not sent to you at random, please update the login information for your Amazon account. If you clicked on the link, you should perform a security sweep for viruses or other malicious software on your device.
- Report all meetings with a scam. Share your scam experiences to help warn and protect others on BBB Scam Tracker.
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